M. Lightweights Fall to No. 1 Elis

In the first of three meetings during the final weeks of the season, No. 1 Yale exercised early domination as the Elis held onto the Goldthwait Cup for the third straight year with a win over No. 7 Harvard and No. 3 Princeton on Saturday morning on the Charles River.

Saturday’s race featured several lineup changes which the rowers felt were necessary after their fourth consecutive defeat at Georgetown last Sunday.

“After the Georgetown race, we took a look at ourselves and realized that we’re not getting nearly enough boat speed after all the work we put in,” co-captain and coxswain Joe Finelli said. “We did a lot of seat racing and started from scratch. We got some new guys in the boat and set a new lineup.”

Harvard didn’t end the makeover with the new lineup—the rowers also re-evaluated their motivations to row.

“We adjusted our attitude a lot,” Finelli said. “Before we had been disappointed with how things were going. As a result, up to the Georgetown race, everything was miserable. [On Saturday] we remembered to have fun and to keep our spirits up. Sure enough, we had our best race of the year against two very fast boats.”

The Crimson fell behind Princeton and Yale early in the course, despite rowing well through the first and third 500 meters. In the first 1,000 meters, the Tigers moved to be level or even slightly ahead of the Elis, but the lead was short-lived as Yale pulled through with a 4.3-second win. Harvard finished 4.5 seconds behind Princeton.

“If the boat that raced at Georgetown [had raced on Saturday], we would not have even been on the map,” Finelli said. “We’re still two or three lengths slower than them, but it’s not six or seven. It’s not a joke of a race.”

The second varsity tried to stick with the Elis and the Tigers, but also fell behind early with a rough start.

“Our plan was to try to race the first 600 to 700 meters and stick with Princeton and Yale through that,” senior stroke Tad Fallows said. “We executed that all right.”

The Crimson took a 30-stroke move, as planned, and managed to gain a few seats. But despite 20 good strokes around the 500-meter mark, Harvard lost its momentum and sight of the competition.

“We might have been hit by a gust of wind or something—our balance and timing went off a bit,” Fallows said. “When we fell off, we lost contact with [Princeton and Yale] and they fell out of our line of sight.”

The Elis beat out the Tigers by 2.4 seconds while the Crimson trailed Princeton by 14.6 seconds—a margin that may not be indicative of Harvard’s potential speed.

“When you know you’re out of the race, you tend not to race as well as you would otherwise,” Fallows said.

In the first freshman event, an injury-plagued Harvard boat raced without one of it rowers, and fell to both the Elis and the Tigers. The Crimson’s second freshman boat registered Harvard’s only win of the day and raced well to beat Yale by 11.1 seconds.

The Crimson has had to deal with a number of injuries over the season, including a back injury to co-captain Pat Todd. Junior Nick Blannin and sophomore Alex Binkley also missed time with injury, but they have been back in action since Navy and Dartmouth, respectively.

Harvard will also gain speed as the boats adjust to the new lineups, as the strokes of both the first and second varsity boats were racing their first races as stroke. The Crimson has the next two weeks to settle into the new lineups as the boats prepare for the EARC Sprint Championships on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.

“We only had one or two practices with the new lineups before this race,” Fallows said. “Now, we’ll have at least a week of practices with our lineups.”

Harvard’s program, with Coach Charley Butt, is known for gaining speed as the season progresses, peaking just in time for EARC Sprints and IRAs.

Last year, the Yale lightweight crew won both the Goldthwait Cup and the Eastern Sprints crown, only to watch Harvard win the national title by less than a second. The championship continued Harvard’s unusual streak of winning at IRAs every odd year since 1991. 2002 has come with no guarantees, but the Crimson rowers are making the adjustments to enjoy their time on the water—changes that will hopefully translate into speed.

“For the first time all racing season, people are starting to feel good about themselves,” Finelli said.

Harvard Men’s Lightweight Crew

at the Charles River

1st Varsity: Yale 6:28.6; Princeton 6:32.9; Harvard 6:37.4 2nd Varsity: Yale 6:42.3; Princeton 6:44.7; Harvard 6:59.3 1st Freshman: Yale 6:59.5; Princeton 7:02.7; Harvard 7:12.4 2nd Freshman: Harvard 7:16.4; Yale 7:27.5