Princeton, Yale Fall to M. Lights Yet Again

There’s nothing better than beating up on old friends to get over a heartbreaking loss.

The No. 2 Harvard men’s lightweight crew bested both No. 4 Yale and No. 6 Princeton on Lake Carnegie in its final dual of the season to retain the Goldthwait Cup, continuing on its road to recovery following a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of No. 1 Navy just one weekend ago. After being nipped by the Midshipmen last year, the Crimson similarly defeated its other Big Three rivals.

“This race is definitely the highlight of our dual season traditionally,” said junior seven-seat Mike Kummer. “This season, like last season, has given extra importance since we were coming off a loss to Navy and we wanted to execute well.”

Looking to shave seconds from its time and sharpen its execution, Harvard (9-1) moved junior and former stroke Nate Rogers into the heart of the engine room at the six-seat, swapping him with classmate Pat Haas. The move appeared to work almost too well early on as the Crimson worked itself into such a frenzy that it quickly settled into an unsustainable pace.

“We were a little bit excited,” said senior coxswain Dave Kang. “And we were probably at a little bit too high a stroke than was optimal.”

The early misstep opened the door for the Bulldogs (7-3), who quickly slid in off the start to seize an early lead.

But Harvard, which has dominated the first 1,000 meters in each of its regattas thus far this season, quickly regained its composure before adopting a more suitable rate.

Already breaking with the Tigers (2-7) but trailing by half a length overall, the Crimson walked back through Yale with relative ease, and with the move took control over the race’s momentum.

“We were much more aggressive,” Kummer said, “and maintained a much higher base cadence.”

Sped by a ripping tailwind—the favorable breeze conditions helped Harvard finish the course with a time just one second slower than that of the Princeton heavywights earlier in the day and to set a record clfor lightweight crews—the Crimson steadily pulled away over the following 1,000 meters, when the scene one week prior began to repeat itself.

Then, Navy had made a move with 700 meters to go. This time, 50 meters later, the Bulldogs were attempting to pull off the same comeback maneuver.

But when Harvard faltered last weekend, the crew shone this weekend, rebuffing Yale’s advance with relatively little difficulty before extending its margin of victory with a sprint of its own.

“We waited to about 300 meters to go before taking the cadence up,” Kang said. “We did have open water by that point, so they just made it less open water.”

Ceding just “a seat or two” while waiting to counter with a sprint of its own, the Crimson retained its composure, one week wiser after falling apart when the Midshipmen had successfully begun to walk back through Harvard’s boat.

Upping its pace to 41 strokes in the final push, the Crimson left no doubt, finishing in 5:37.6 to Yale’s 5:41.3. Princeton finished a distant third in 5:48.2.

Though the Tigers and Bulldogs flip-flopped in the junior varsity, varsity fours and novice eights races, Harvard never faltered, running the table with victories in all three.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.