Crimson Seeks Wins on Charles

The Harvard men’s heavyweight and lightweight crew teams will finally get to break the ice this weekend with their first races of 2009 on the Charles River.

Both squads will look to carry early season momentum into their home-opening contests after strong performances this past weekend at the San Diego Crew Classic for the heavies and in Princeton, N.J., and Philadelphia, Penn., for the lights.

The heavyweights will challenge Brown in a quest for its first dual cup of the season—the Stein Cup—on Saturday, while the lightweights take on Dartmouth and MIT for the Biglin Cup.

Although the Crimson boats will match up against different opponents, both will enter this year’s contests with chips on their shoulders, having finished second in the races last season.

But Harvard’s heavyweights can take comfort in the 2009 race for the Stein, as the squad will compete in the familiar confines of Boston.

“It’s nice to have the luxury of rowing on a home course,” heavyweight captain Teddy Schreck said. “[Avoiding] the travel aspect is big. It’s really nice not to have to go somewhere and rowing on the Charles is what we’re used to.”

Despite the opportunity to row at home, the Crimson will have no easy task matching up with the Bears.

Last year Harvard took four of five races in Providence, but dropped the varsity eight heat, relinquishing the cup to Brown.

However, after a solid third place showing among a talented field in San Diego, the squad is brimming with confidence and has revenge in sight.

“Brown is big for us,” Schreck said. “They are traditionally a big rival in our conference and it is very competitive towards the end of the year. We had the opportunity to race them last week, so we have an idea of their relative speed.”

Indeed, the Crimson has already sent a message to the Bears, finishing two spots ahead of its rivals in San Diego.

This result, coupled with exceptional efforts in practice, has Harvard looking to put even more distance between itself and Brown tomorrow.

“From week to week the goal is just to…use practice to race better the following week,” Schreck said. “We’ve put in quite a bit of work, and [the upcoming race] will give us an opportunity to assert ourselves and show some speed.”

With a long road ahead until championship races in June, Harvard recognizes that this weekend’s race only marks a starting point.

Although the squad has the advantage of familiarity with its opponent, the Crimson will focus on the broader goal of team improvement rather than results.

“We can only control what we can control and race as hard as we can,” Schreck explained. “[This race] sets the tone for the start of the season and gives wus an edge to carry through to the championship.”

For the fifth-ranked lightweights, Saturday’s race against Dartmouth and MIT represents a chance to continue the team’s spring dominance.

By going 4-0 against Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, and Penn less than a week ago, Harvard’s varsity eight will take to the river as favorites.

Last weekend, the crew posted a blistering time of 6:22.2, nine seconds ahead of the Big Red, the defending national champion. Considering the quality of the Crimson’s first showing, it has high hopes that simply racing consistently will bring improvement over last year’s loss to the Big Green.

“I think the biggest thing we are hoping to do is just race the full 2000 meters and row as technically sound as we can,” senior Stephen Barchick said. “We had a great week last week as a team, but it’s a new week and we’ve got some good opponents.”

For it’s part, defending Biglin Cup champion Dartmouth will also enter Saturday’s race undefeated. The Big Green lightweights challenged Delaware in their spring opener, winning three of five races, including the varsity eight, who squeaked out a win over the Blue Hens by a margin of 0.2 seconds.

The Engineers will have some ground to make up on both squads, as it finished third behind Georgetown and Yale last weekend in all three of its races. With MIT calling the Charles home, its boats may be able to close the gap, but the Crimson will likely find itself in more of a two-team race.

Regardless of the outcome for the Stein and Biglin cups, both squads appear ready to dig in for a competitive spring season. Like his heavyweight counterpart, Barchick expressed excitement at the chance to break in the Charles, even if spring warmth remains elusive.

“We love racing on our home course,” he said. “In terms of weather we’ll see how it goes, but we’ll just have to focus and row our own race.”

—Staff writer Max N. Brondfield can be reached at mbrondf@fas.harvard.edu.