SEASON RECAP: Men's Lightweight Crew

The Harvard varsity lightweights ended three streaks in 2005, two of which solidified the team’s No. 1 ranking and another that took that ranking away.

The Crimson bested then-No.1 Navy for its first Haines Cup win since 2001, a win that propelled Harvard to No. 1.

The Harvard second varsity beat Navy for the second consecutive year, while the varsity boat downed the Midshipmen for the first time since 2001.

It was a good day for the Harvard varsity,” senior varsity seven-seat Michael Kummer said after the race. “[Navy] has a really fast program.

“It was great for Newell Boathouse to have the showing that it did,” he added.

Both lightweight boats held onto those No. 1 rankings for the rest of the dual season, dispelling Princeton and Yale in come-from-behind victories to assert their position.

The varsity’s lone dual-season loss to Georgetown on April 10 put the Crimson at 10-1 heading into the Eastern Sprints Championships. The second varsity was an unblemished 10-0, giving Newell Boathouse its deepest and most talented varsity in several years.

“We have a great coach [in Charley Butt], but it’s [also] a testament to the fact that everybody worked really, really hard this year,” second varsity five-seat Alex Phillips said of this year’s squad.

“We put in the time in the winter and the fall and that pays dividends in the spring,” he added.

The varsity lightweights ended yet another streak at the annual Eastern Sprints, an event Harvard had not won since 1997.

The Crimson headed to Lake Quinsigamond as the consensus crew to beat at Sprints—and two different boats almost got the job done against No. 1 Harvard.

In the most thrilling Sprints race of the afternoon, Cornell, Yale, and Harvard spent the final 500 meters jockeying for position.

Yale had claimed the early lead, but Harvard, Cornell, and Navy made it a four-boat affair.

The Midshipmen fell slightly off of the pace, and the Crimson, the Big Red, and the Bulldogs were near dead even down the stretch in the last 100 meters of the race.

The Crimson’s thrilling win—Harvard stole a 0.2-second victory over second-place Yale—was confirmed only after a series of timed photographs showed the Harvard boat a few mere inches ahead of the Bulldogs at the line.

Only 0.3 seconds separated the first-place Crimson from third-place Cornell, but the bow-ball margin gave the Crimson a much-sought after Sprints crown and a No. 1 ranking heading into the IRA national championship regatta on June 4.

But that’s when the real streak ended for the Crimson—a string of national titles in every odd year since 1991.

Harvard entered the race as No. 1, which was simply a numerical distinction that did little more than separate six to seven crews capable of taking the national crown.

Though the Crimson boasted a near perfect dual-season record, the varsity had overcome significant deficits in every dual race.

““It’s lightweight racing, so it’s always very tight,” varsity stroke Dan Reid added. “You’re never going to get an easy race.”

The Crimson was indeed in the mix at Camden, but unfortunately for Harvard, it could not engineer another thrilling come-from-behind win at the IRAs.

After a shaky start, the Crimson could not bounce back. Harvard fell to Yale for the first time all season, as the Bulldogs took home the IRA crown in 5:41.89, Cornell came in second in 5:43.39, and Penn finished third in 5:44.71.

Harvard followed in fourth with a time of 5:45.45.

The streak ended at Camden, but the lightweights will look to return to form with a trip to the Henley Royal Regatta in early July.

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