M. Lights Attempt To Shake Even-Year Jinx Fails

Every odd-numbered year since 1991, the Harvard men’s lightweight crew has brought an Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) national championship back to Cambridge.

And every even-numbered year since, they’ve failed in their bid to defend it.

Much to their chagrin, the Crimson rowers proved unable to snap the inglorious streak on the seventh try, capping their 2004 campaign with a fifth-place showing on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., where adverse weather conditions precluded a proper title defense.

With a strong headwind unequally affecting the lanes, Harvard fell to Georgetown—whom it had twice beaten previously—in the morning heat, then lost out when the lanes were reordered to provide heat winners with the most favorable conditions.

“The conditions were making it difficult for us to get by opponents we should’ve been able to get by,” said senior coxswain Dave Kang. “I can’t say how much it hurt us, but it definitely didn’t help.”

Navy—a thorn in the Crimson’s side throughout the year—defeated Harvard’s first varsity by 11.26 seconds, less than two months after scraping out a 1.1-second win in the team’s dual and a 2.27-second victory at the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) Sprints.

And while the Crimson might not have had the firepower to upstage the No. 1 Midshipmen, Harvard was also bested by both Princeton and Yale, each of whom, like the Hoyas, the Crimson had already beaten to successfully defend the Goldthwait Cup at H-Y-P in the season’s final dual.

That the season would end so disappointingly was anything but clear from the start.

The Crimson routed Penn and Cornell to open its season, then Dartmouth and MIT to capture the Biglin Bowl, priming Harvard for its run-in with Navy.

Unlike last year, in which the lightweight scene devolved into mayhem when a series of No. 1 crews were upset within days of their ascension to the throne, the Crimson-Midshipmen matchup featured the two pre-eminent national crews and correctly foreshadowed several important meetings.

Harvard fell behind off the start but had taken the lead within the first 500 meters. Passing the midway mark and heading for the home stretch, all the Crimson needed to do was hold on.

Of course, as fate would have it, they didn’t. Navy mounted an overwhelming sprint with 700 meters to go, had all but eliminated the lead with 500 meters to go and slowly but surely walked back through the Harvard shell before eking out the victory.

“We allowed ourselves to let them back into the race,” said junior seven-seat Mike Kummer. “That being said, they were always in the race. They were driving hard. They’re tough as heck. That’s why they’re in the Naval Academy.”

But the loss, if anything, appeared to galvanize the Crimson, which redoubled its efforts, honed its sprint, and crushed a quintet of opponents on two successive weekends to regain its momentum heading into Sprints.

Again, it was simply not to be.

Though Harvard won the Jope Trophy for best cumulative performance, Navy again bested the first varsity, jumping the Crimson off the start—a weakness for the crew all season long—and then holding on for the win. Previously, Harvard had successfully walked back through each opponent it had fallen behind.

“Devastating is the best word to describe it,” Kang said. “We were very confident coming into this weekend. We knew we had what we needed to do to get what has been so hard for Harvard to get a hold of.”

And any other year, that probably would have been good enough. Well, any odd-numbered year anyway.

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