All Four M. Lightweight Boats Win To Take Matthews-Leonard Cup

The men’s lightweight crew teams started off the season with a bang Saturday, as Harvard swept Penn and Cornell to win the Matthews-Leonard Cup. The Crimson, competing in New Jersey in near-perfect conditions, showed no signs of early-season jitters in capturing its first victory of the season in dominating fashion.

Led by the varsity eight, all four of Harvard’s boats emerged victorious in the 16th running of the Matthews-Leonard series. Although the Crimson did not take the lead immediately out of the starting gate, the first varsity soon passed both boats to take the lead. Once in front, Harvard refused to relent.

Five-seat Marc Luff noted that the race seemed to turn in Harvard’s favor when the team “settled into the pace.”

“After the start, we started to gain on both Penn and Cornell,” Luff said. “We passed Penn, then Cornell, to take the lead.”

Once in the lead, the Crimson continued to widen the gap against both boats.

“We were racing some really good teams this weekend,” coxswain Felix Yu said. “But everyone moved really well and went hard for the entire race.”

Harvard focused on maintaining a rhythm within its own boat once it had moved through both Penn and Cornell. The start behind them, the first varsity rowers used 10- or 20-stroke power pieces to increase their lead.

“In this race, we didn’t want to do more than get our boat moving quickly,” Yu said. “We don’t tend to focus on how we can beat other teams or how they’re doing. We try to focus on our own boat.”

Focus they did, as the first boat capped off the race with a solid five-second victory over Cornell and an eight-second win over Penn. The Crimson crossed in 6:16.5. Cornell followed in 6:21.8, and the Quakers rounded out the group in 6:24.8. The Big Red finished nearly two boat lengths behind the Crimson, and Penn followed three boat lengths behind.

The varsity finished off the successful day for Harvard with its dominating win, putting an exclamation point on an undefeated Saturday. The Crimson’s first novice eight and second varsity overcame early deficits in time to snare victories.

Harvard’s first novice eight scored a come-from-behind victory in one of the first races of the day, gaining a bit of revenge for its defeat in the same race last year. After trailing for much of the race, the Crimson freshmen overtook Cornell seat by seat as the boats neared the finish line. Harvard emerged victorious in that race, finishing in 6:35.1, ahead of Cornell, who finished in 6:39.2. Although the Crimson sat a length behind the Big Red earlier in the race, they ended the course with an open-water victory over Cornell.

“Last year, the freshmen lost here,” Luff said. “This year, they started out down a length, and stayed behind until the last five hundred to six hundred meters. Then they came back to win. It was a great way to start out the day.”

The day seemed to have nothing but positives for the Crimson, which hopes to build on Saturday’s victories as the season progresses. Yu noted that the team’s goal is simply to improve in each race, both in speed and form.

“The goal of the entire season is to get faster and do things better in each race,” Yu said.” Hopefully, if we can do that in each race, we’ll be in good shape.”

Harvard looks to do just that when it competes against MIT and Dartmouth in the Biglin Bowl on the Charles River this Saturday.