Sprint to the Finish

Make it happen.

For those looking to describe Harvard crew on Saturday, those three words are a good place to start.

“That’s been our motto all year,” said junior Mike DiSanto, seven seat of the heavyweight first varsity eight. “And we certainly made it happen today.”

The Crimson heavyweights swept its races against Princeton at Lake Carnegie in Princeton Township, N.J., while the lightweights took four out of five races on the Charles.

No. 3 HEAVYWEIGHTS vs. No. 4 PRINCETON

Last year, Harvard’s first varsity eight cruised to an easy victory after the Tigers lost the bow of their boat, but this year, Princeton didn’t give the Crimson anything.

Harvard had to take it.

“It was a bit like a boxing match,” DiSanto said. “We were both throwing punches. We kind of had the knockout punch with the sprint.”

The Tigers and the Crimson had been even throughout the race, but Princeton took two moves in the middle 1,000 that gave it an edge.

“They had two big pushes: one in the second 500 and one in the third 500,” junior stroke Pat Lapage said. “[Harvard coach] Harry [Parker] told us to expect that they’d be very strong through the middle. We sort of planned our race accordingly.”

According to DiSanto, the Tigers’ move at the 750-to-go mark gave it a lead of two-to-three seats that the crew would be able to hold until around 300 meters, when Harvard charged forward for good with a crushingly high sprint.

“We really brought it up,” DiSanto said of the stroke rating. “I think we probably went up to about 38-39 from about 750, up to 40 for the last 300, about 42 for the last 20 strokes.”

The sprint gave the Crimson a 1.2 second victory. It was the first time a Princeton first varsity eight had lost all season.

“We knew we had a pretty good sprint,” Lapage said. “It showed us how [fast] we have to be...We were pretty happy with the way it all panned out in the end.”

While the first varsity eight was a stroke-for-stroke battle, the other three races were more one-sided. The second varsity won by 10 seconds, the freshman eight won by 5.8 seconds, and the third varsity eight won by 15.3 seconds. Harvard’s fourth varsity eight, competing in the third varsity eight event, defeated the Tigers’ third varsity eight by 4.1 seconds and fell to its own 3V by 11.2 seconds.

“It’s becoming a nice trend,” Lapage said of his team’s depth. “It just means that no one’s taking his seat for granted. You have to focus on keeping your seat. Otherwise, there are guys ready and willing to take it. It’s a really healthy squad dynamic.”

The wins kept all five Crimson eights undefeated.

“It was a great bus ride home,” DiSanto said.

No. 2 LIGHTWEIGHTS vs. No. 8 DARTMOUTH, No. 14 MIT

In its first two weekends of racing, Harvard showed off its speed and its depth. On Saturday, in a severe tailwind and a Charles River basin brimming with whitecaps, the Crimson showed something else: its guts.

“The conditions were pretty wet and floppy,” said captain Will Newell, six seat of the first varsity eight. “A lot of the race was about maintaining and trying not to catch a crab...We decided that we were going to do our best, stay relaxed, try to have fun. It was fine; it wasn’t the prettiest rowing but it wasn’t going to be. You do what you can.”

According to Newell, Harvard and the Big Green stayed even for the first 500 meters, but Dartmouth took a few moves in the middle 1,000 that gave it a lead of around two seats just before the last 500.

“I think from 50 meters before to 50 meters after [the 1,500 meter mark] we went from being two seats down to being five or six seats up,” Newell said.

The Crimson was able to maintain its lead for a 1.9 second victory. MIT finished third.

The second varsity eight had a similarly tight race. The Crimson finished with a margin of 2.8 seconds.

“It was really nice to get some close competition, especially against Dartmouth,” Newell said. “For the 1V and the 2V, that was the closest margins we’ve had.”

The third varsity eight race differed sharply from the 1V and 2V events; Harvard won by 12.5 seconds.

“The 3V did a good job of dominating their race,” Newell said.

The freshman eight continued its upward trend with its second win of the season. There was overlap between the Crimson and the Big Green for the first 1,900 meters of the race, but a Dartmouth boat-stopping crab with 100 meters to go allowed Harvard to win by 6.8 seconds. The Engineers were third.

“The water was almost unrowable,” Muri said of the crab. “It was just challenging for everyone out there.”

For the 1F, which was in position to win before the crab, the victory showed significant progress.

“They’re definitely making improvements,” Muri said. “It’s very exciting.”

The only Crimson loss came in the second freshman event. Harvard’s 2F finished third in what was a tight race between all three crews. The Crimson finished 1.4 seconds behind the Big Green and .5 seconds behind Dartmouth.

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.