M. Heavyweight Crew Cruises to Easy Win Over Navy and Penn

The Harvard varsity heavyweight crew had no trouble extending its dual race winning streak to 20, blitzing the field by almost six boat lengths in Saturday’s Adams Cup victory over Navy and Penn.

After last week’s dethroning of then-No. 1 Princeton, the heavyweights defended their newly minted No. 1 national ranking in dominant fashion.

In the first varsity race, Harvard sat on the outside lane of a staggered start, already at a few seats advantage over the Penn and Navy crews occupying inside lanes.

And after the start, it became all too clear that the Crimson would never trail.

“We had a really strong start, which was good news for us,” said sophomore varsity two-seat Andrew Boston. “We came off the line really fast.”

Navy did manage, however, to keep close to the Harvard boat in the race’s opening strokes.

But with 750 meters gone, Harvard had already buried the Midshipmen and third-place Penn.

“We took a strong move at the 400-meter mark,” Boston said, “and we continued breaking away for the rest of the race.”

The dominant start gave the Crimson its early advantage, and the crew’s strong base cadence throughout the heart of the course added several boat lengths to the Harvard lead. Harvard plowed through the course in relative isolation, with both Penn and Navy locked in a battle for second place.

“The body of the race proved that we have a whole lot of power and can move the boat really well,” sophomore and varsity bow Nick Baker said.

Toward the end of the race, the Crimson suffered a slight slip-up—one over which neither Penn nor Navy had any control.

Near the 300-meter mark, having already annihilated the morning’s competition, the Crimson got a little violent with the water as well.

Baker’s bow oar smacked an idle goose in the Schuylkill River just before the finish line. The move both startled the goose and the Crimson boat, which experienced a significant lurch shortly after contact.

“My oar just sort of stopped mid-motion on the recovery,” Baker said, “and I thought I might have caught a crab. Then I realized my oar wasn’t stuck, but there was a goose kicking and flapping around in the water.”

Boston was less descriptive.

“He severely maimed a goose,” Boston said.

The goose, however, had little impact in slowing down the Crimson boat. Harvard quickly regained its composure and began its sprint in earnest, completing the course in a time of 5:42.1.

As for the goose, nobody is quite certain that it ever reached the finish line.

“As of now, I’m not sure about its fate,” Boston said.

“It was still alive after I hit it,” Baker insisted. “But I don’t know if it survived the night. It interrupted our rhythm, but it was sort of an excitement.”

With the Navy crew crossing the line over 17 seconds after Harvard—Navy finished in 5:59.2 and Penn followed in 6:04.1—the goose provided much of the race course excitement for the Crimson on Saturday.

The win was the first varsity’s 20th consecutive dual-race victory, a streak extending back to the 2001 spring season. Harvard is now 5-0 in the 2005 spring dual season.

The second varsity eight was the lone second-place finisher for Harvard on Saturday. Navy bested the second varsity with a time of 5:53.9, while Harvard followed two boat lengths behind in 6:00.7. Penn rounded out the trio in 6:05.9.

In third varsity action, the Crimson enjoyed an open-water victory over Navy. Harvard finished in 6:15.4, and Navy came in with a time of 6:20.4.

After last weekend’s victory over Princeton, the Crimson first freshman boat continued its success in a two-second victory over second-place Penn. The crew is now 4-1 on the spring season, its lone loss coming to Brown on the first weekend of competition. The second varsity also rowed to victory in Philadelphia.

The four dual wins ensured Harvard of its sixth consecutive Adams Cup win. In the Cup’s 70-year history, the Crimson holds a huge advantage over its two competitors with 43 wins compared to 14 for Penn and 13 for Navy.

Next weekend, Harvard will round out its dual season in a Charles River battle against Northeastern.

The No. 1 Crimson will then set out to defend both its ranking and last year’s national championship in the Eastern Sprints and IRA regattas, all too aware of the large target on its back.

“We’ve had success so far in the dual season, but the goal is to keep improving this week,” Baker said. “It can go without saying that these other crews, even if we beat them in the dual races—they’re going to be getting faster, and we’ve got to get faster, too.”

—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.