Head of the Charles Puts Crimson Men to Test

Once again, Harvard’s heavyweight championship four provided the highlight for the Crimson in this year’s Head of the Charles Regatta.

Harvard coach Harry Parker historically puts his four strongest oarsmen in that famed four, and, as tradition has it, they rarely let him down.

After a two-second loss to Stanford in last year’s championship four event, the Harvard entry defeated the Cardinal and all other collegiate competition yesterday, finishing the course with a time of 16:09.61. The Crimson placed fourth overall behind two U.S. Rowing boats and the Pennsylvania Athletic Club. Stanford finished fifth and was the second university crew to cross the line in a time of 16:47.56—almost 40 seconds behind Harvard.

The Crimson started in the event on a staggered start, ahead of a U.S. Rowing boat composed of the U.S. four that won gold at the World Championships in Munich this summer. The U.S. Rowing boat started fourth and overtook the Crimson in the final strokes of the race.

“By the end, it was just a case of holding the Americans off,” senior stroke George Kitovitz said. “It’s something we’re all really happy with—holding off the best boat in the world for 99 percent of the race.”

Harvard’s strongest and most experienced rowers typically comprise the championship four, a tactic of coach Harry Parker’s that differentiates the Crimson from the majority of collegiate rowing programs that focus their efforts on the championship eight entry.

“It’s really an opportunity,” Kitovitz said. “Obviously, the college program relies on racing eights the whole time, but the Head of the Charles is kind of different, so it’s a chance to try other things out.”

In other heavyweight competition, Harvard’s club eight, composed of juniors and sophomores, won its event on Saturday with a finishing time of 15:01.799, almost 30 seconds ahead of second-place finisher George Washington Rowing Association. Another Harvard entry finished ninth in the same event with a time of 15:45.92, while the Crimson’s third entry finished 15th in 16:01.492.

Despite the large margin between Harvard and its closest competitor in the end result, the race itself was characterized by close turns and narrow passes.

“The race got off to a pretty tight start,” junior coxswain Tope Amos said. “We ended up passing the boat in front of us under the BU Bridge. I thought we were going to get penalized for going out of bounds, but we made it.”

Near the end of three-mile course, the Crimson had already passed three boats and looked to make a strong and emphatic finish coming through the Eliot Bridge. Harvard looked poised to pull ahead of yet another crew in the last mile.

“‘We can get them before the finish line. We’ve got to go right here,’” Amos told her crew during the last mile.

“Our starboard oars were practically on the shore with the trees [when we were passing the other crew],” Amos added. “Then we lifted to walk through them, and we finished the race with a 36 or so [stroke rating] for the last minute and a half [to] two minutes.”

On the lightweight side, Harvard’s first varsity entry finished 12th overall and seventh amongst college entries with a finishing time of 15.18.40. Princeton finished first of all the collegiate lightweight crews with a time of 14:27.33, and Navy, Cornell, Yale, and Princeton’s second lightweight varsity boat rounded out the top five.

“It was a decent set and a decent rhythm,” senior stroke Matt Young said. “We were definitely capable of more and capable of better, but it was by no means a bad piece.”

The Harvard heavyweight eight competed in yesterday afternoon’s championship eight event, the focal event of the afternoon for almost every other collegiate program. The Crimson placed 12th overall and 10th among collegiate crews (14:55.57), coming in just behind entries from Boston University and Virginia. A U.S. Rowing eight came in first in the Championship Eight event as well, finishing in a blistering time of 14:03.71 on the three-mile course. Wisconsin finished first among collegiate teams with 14:30.02, while Harvard foes Brown, Princeton, and California rounded out the top five.

“We basically just tried to row as strongly and consistently as possible,” senior Anton Wintner said, adding, “The Head of the Charles is important in that it sets the tone for training. This is the biggest regatta that we have between now and when we go to California in the spring. We’re quite pleased with how we did overall with the team.”