Harvard, Radcliffe Crews Each Take Titles

The event celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, and Harvard and Radcliffe crews were again in the mix against the world’s premier rowing competition. Heavy winds at the river’s basin forced officials to shorten the three-mile course to just over two miles long, but a change in scenery did nothing to deter the Harvard’s top Championship Four entry yesterday.

That shell’s second-place finish was one of numerous highlights on the men’s side, paralleled by the first freshman boat’s first-place finish in the Youth Eights. The heavies also brought home another title—the Club Eights—but was disqualified on account of an eligibility technicality.

Otherwise it was business as usual yesterday for Harvard. Despite losing six first varsity rowers from last year’s national championship boat and six more from the junior varsity, the Crimson dominated the competition in the Championship Four race. Harvard led early in the race, but its pace was overtaken in the final half mile by that of USRowing—manned by rowers from this year’s Olympics—which defeated the Crimson by 0.2 seconds. Nobody else—not even the non-collegiate competition—came close.

Harvard began the race aggressively, taking advantage of an early opening to pass a moving Princeton crew. Although Harvard was forced to pass Wisconsin on the outside, the crew made up for the loss of time with a burst of speed just beyond the race’s one-mile mark.

“We went in thinking we were going to have a really big fight,” said senior two-seat Malcolm Howard. “We tried to pass other crews so we could get around the first turn early. We got a chance to pass Princeton early and that worked really well.”

The Crimson boat (12:12) held an advantage throughout the first half of the race, leading the USRowing crew by four seconds at the race’s first marker. And though Harvard eventually settled for second place, the closest collegiate boat—Wisconsin—crossed the line more than 23 seconds after the Crimson in a distant fifth. Princeton finished sixth with a time of 12:37.

“Our performance was really good. We all feel we could have had a little better race, but we were happy with the overall result,” Howard said. “It’s confidence-boosting in some ways, but it’s just four guys, and we have to put together a fast eight for the spring.”

Harvard’s other entry in the field—competing under the moniker Charles River Rowing Association—recorded a 16th place finish. That crew crossed the line four seconds ahead of Yale’s heavyweight four.

Harvard’s other varsity heavyweight eight placed sixth in the Collegiate Eights.

The heavyweight freshman eight made an early name for itself, destroying the field in the Youth Eights by 10 seconds en route to a gold medal. After trailing California at the halfway mark, the Crimson maneuvered an effective push, tearing through the second leg of the course five seconds faster than the Golden Bear crew.

Ivy League opponents Penn, Princeton, Brown and Yale each finished more than eight seconds behind and never had a chance. The Crimson boat started first and finished first, avoiding any contact with another crew.

“We never really at any point had another boat trying to pass us,” seven-seat Matt King said. “We didn’t take any specific power moves. Our goal was to row a very thorough and consistently strong race.”

The lightweight freshman eight, entered in the same event, also put in a good showing. An eighth-place finish for the lights put them just one second behind the entry from Yale.

The Championship Eight event proved less successful for the Harvard heavies, who turned in an 18th-place finish. The boat, composed of last year’s first freshman crew, came in behind Princeton, California and Yale, which finished third, fourth and seventh, respectively.

An additional varsity entry in the Men’s Club Event had a similar ending for the Crimson rowers, but not for lack of effort. A boat composed entirely of juniors and seniors beat the nearest boat by 18 seconds. The victory, however, was short-lived. Upon arriving at the medal ceremony, the rowers found that their gold medals had been substituted for a heated protest. Opposing coaches complained that the Harvard eight violated eligibility requirements.

“There was some ineligibility in the rules for the club eights,” said five-seat David Bowen. “If anybody has placed in the top five of any event at the Charles in the last five years, they’re automatically disqualified.”

Some of Harvard’s rowers had placed in the top five as freshman, and the club eight went home empty-handed.

“We ran down to the Eliot Bridge and they were just like, ‘No, thanks for coming,’” Bowen said. “We weren’t really in it for the medals, but it was disappointing.”

The Harvard varsity lightweights also saw action on Sunday, and they too experienced disappointment at the hands of other university crews. The Naval Academy, a perennial lightweight power, was the first collegiate squad to cross the line and finished second, followed by Princeton and Yale. The Crimson’s top entry came in seventh overall, despite only trailing eventual winner New York Athletic Club (NYAC) by six seconds near the halfway point. Harvard fell off the pace with about half a mile left, and the race turned into a duel between Navy and NYAC. The second Crimson lightweight eight placed 10th.

An additional Harvard lightweight four competed yesterday, placing 10th overall.

RADCLIFFE

The Radcliffe crews enjoyed success comparable to the men’s over the weekend, although an initial 30-second penalty in the Women’s Lightweight Four race nearly cost the Black and White a first-place finish in the Lightweight Fours. After a scratch in the lightweight eight race—this fall, only seven varsity lightweight rowers are primed for competition—the women’s four crossed the finish line first. But judges assessed the Radcliffe boat a crippling penalty for interference against the Georgetown crew, and the once-champion lightweight four fell to sixth place.

“As we were going under the Anderson Bridge right in front of the boathouse, we were overtaking Georgetown and they didn’t yield to us,” junior two-seat Sarah Bates said. “Our coxswain was steering an amazing course through the turn, but because the Georgetown boat wouldn’t move we ended up clashing oars and having to stop completely.”

Despite the miscommunication, Radcliffe held a nine-second advantage over the field halfway into the race. Four rowing clubs—Undine Barge Club, Brock University Rowing Club, Port Moody Rowing Centre and Boston’s Community Rowing, Inc.—fell behind the Radcliffe four from the beginning, and rival Princeton was 16 seconds behind the Black and White at the first marker.

Coming into the last half mile of the race, Radcliffe maintained a six-second lead over a moving Undine Barge Club crew, and its margin over Princeton had swelled to 23 seconds.

“When you have something like that that happens to your boat it actually helps,” captain stroke Ame Bothwell said. “It adds adrenaline and gives you a rush to help you gain what you just lost.”

The dominant Radcliffe group crossed the line more than five seconds in front of the nearest finisher, but a group of judges destroyed any post-race euphoria in the boat. The last-place Georgetown boat protested the Radcliffe coxswain’s maneuver, and the Black and White were docked 30 seconds from their winning time. Radcliffe coach Liz O’Leary filed a counter-complaint against the call. By 9:40 p.m. last night, Radcliffe had been restored as champion of the lightweight four category.

“We’ve always gotten second place in the eight category, so this will be a first gold,” Bothwell said.

The varsity heavyweights didn’t share the lightweights’ luck against Princeton. The Tigers dominated the women’s varsity heavyweight event, finishing first amongst intercollegiate crews yesterday. The Dutch rowing club ASR Nereus bested Princeton by two seconds for the overall crown, and Yale finished third.

The Black and White’s varsity eight came in eighth, despite an early lead over fifth-place finisher Virginia.

“We were very happy that we beat Brown and other collegiate crews, but we also realize that there were crews in front of us, and we need to work harder,” said senior two-seat Heather Schofield. “This gives us something to chase in the future.”

The shortened course changed the game plan for the women’s eight, who came in looking to settle hard for the three-mile race. An unpredictable wind—combined with the abbreviated race—allowed Radcliffe to row at a higher stroke rating. That rating did give the Black and White a faster start, but the eight grew tired at the race’s final turn.

“When we do that [use a higher stroke rating], we run the risk of not finishing as hard as we would like,” Schofield said. “Going into the turn toward the finish line, we definitely lost ground on a lot of crews, especially Michigan.”

With half a mile remaining, Radcliffe held more than a one-second lead over the crew from Michigan, but the Wolverines put on a late surge and outlasted the Black and White boat by two seconds. A late advantage over USRowing also evaporated for the heavyweights, who crossed the finish line behind three crews they had led at different stages of the race.

A second varsity entry for the Radcliffe heavies came in 30th, just behind the Riverside Boat Club crew.

The freshman eight proved to be a bright spot for the Black and White, starting off its campaign on the Charles with a sixth-place finish. The crew crossed the line just one second behind Brown in the Youth Eights, and was the third collegiate boat to finish, trailing fourth-placed Virginia and the fifth-placed Bears.