By Chile Hidalgo

Special to the Gazette

While Americans generally celebrate Independence Day on the Fourth of July, the men's varsity lightweight crew could be celebrating for entirely different reasons this year, although, like the revolutionaries of 1776, they will have to defeat English opponents to do so.

The First Varsity Boat left for England on June 24 to begin preparing for the Henley Royal Regatta. The regatta, considered by many the most prestigious rowing event of the season, takes place July 2-6. The Crimson will face off against a field of 57 other boats, including entries from Oxford and Cambridge. Other American competitors hail from the University of Pennsylvania and Washington State.

The competition consists of a series of single-elimination, head-to-head races, with the winners advancing to the next round. The final race on Sunday determines the regatta winner.

Harvard's crew of Ted Shergalis '97, Dave Hirsch '97, Chris Sims '98, Tom Fallows '99, J.J. Lenhart '99, Jonathan Kibera '98, Bill Evans '98, Ryan Wise '97, and coxswain Kevin Murphy '97 forays into foreign waters after concluding the regular season with a 5-0 regatta record.

Their only loss this season came at the San Diego Crew Classic, where they finished second to Yale. However, they avenged that loss by defeating the Elis at both the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints Championship and the National Collegiate Championships.

Senior co-captain Shergalis attributed the crew's continued improvement to the training program implemented by head coach Charlie Butt.

"The boat now is running at top form," he said last month. "I liken it to an engine which Coach Butt has been tightening the screws on all season. Now the engine is running perfectly."

Harvard's rich crew history includes several visits to Henley. In 1914, the junior varsity heavyweight crew became the first American crew to win the Grand Challenge Cup, and Harvard won the Grand four times after that, most recently in 1985. The Crimson's last trip to Henley took place in 1995, when the Lightweight boat advanced to the quarterfinals.

Shergalis was a member of the crew that participated in the 1995 Henley Regatta. Despite the fact that one member of that team became ill and missed the race, the boat managed to advance to the quarterfinals. This bodes well for the '97 version of the Crimson, which Shergalis believes may surpass its '95 counterpart. Even in top form, he noted, the '95 boat barely matched up with his current crew.

"As a unit, we're definitely as fast, maybe faster," he said.