It will be a busy spring break for several varsity teams, one which will include trips to California, Florida and Texas. Here's a round-up of the Crimson's expected exploits next week:

Baseball

The Harvard baseball team will open its annual trip to the Homestead Challenge with a re-match against budding arch-rival Oklahoma State today at 7 p.m.

The Crimson (2-2) dropped an emotional 8-6 decision last year at Homestead to the Cowboys, and it also lost 10-7 in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Tournament in 1997.

Seniors Andrew Huling and Peter Woodfork have supplied the bulk of the Crimson offense thus far. Huling is batting .417 with five RBI and Woodfork is hitting .357 with five RBI.

Sophomore Scott Carmack, who is battling for a starting outfield job, has started all four games this season and is tied with Huling for the team lead in batting at .417.

Harvard will also face Ohio State, St. Thomas and FIU while in Florida, before making the trek back north to visit Penn and Columbia in its Ivy League openers.

"Some teams will tell you they're just looking to practice over spring training," said Harvard Coach Joe Walsh. "We're not interested in practicing. We want to win."

Crew

Five months of hard training are about to culminate in the start of the spring sprint season for the Harvard lightweight crew.

While the men's heavyweight crew won't start its spring season until April 10, the lightweights open in Philadelphia for the Mathews Cup with Penn and Cornell on April 3.

According to Harvard lightweight co-captain Thomas Fallows, the crucial time for college crew is approaching quickly, and the Crimson will soon see how it stacks up.

"This is the first time since November that we've faced anybody," Fallows said. "The first race of the year, people come into it with a lot of hopes and expectations. The first race is a reality check."

"Every single team comes into its first race with high hopes, and you come out of it with a real sense of who the big players are going to be this year."

The reality for the lightweights is that there are four new members in the boat.