Crimson Lightweights Down Navy, Georgetown

Saturday proved to be a long but successful day of racing and traveling for the Harvard men’s heavyweight and lightweight crews.

The heavyweights challenged Navy and Penn in Annapolis, Md., taking four out of five races to capture the Adams Cup.

The No. 1 lightweights also competed in Annapolis for the Haines Cup, alternating races with their heavyweight counterparts. After a successful showing against Navy, the Crimson traveled to Princeton to face Georgetown and swept the four races of the afternoon.

HEAVYWEIGHTS vs. NAVY, PENN

The Harvard heavyweight first varsity eight defeated Navy by a narrow margin to take its thirteenth straight Adams Cup title.  The Crimson finished in 5:59.3, edging out the Midshipmen by 1.9 seconds. Penn finished third with a time of 6:11.9.

“It was always going to be pretty tough,” said junior Josh Hicks, three seat of the first varsity boat. “We had an eight hour bus ride which turned into a 10 hour bus ride on the way there. For Navy, it was their coach’s last home dual race, and Penn is always pretty stubborn as well.”

Harvard began the race with a strong start, but Navy stayed with the Crimson boat throughout the first 500.

“Our starts have been improving over this season, and we have been pretty proud of that,” Hicks said. “We got out in front and thought that hopefully we would be able to break open water pretty early, but Navy kept us honest and finished with overlap.”

By the 1000-meter mark, Harvard was leading Navy by about half a boat length. The Crimson tried to stretch its lead in the remaining meters of the race.

“Going into the third 500 is where we really tried to play our strengths,” Hicks said. “We are smaller guys, so we tried to play our fitness a bit more. We were able to push it out to about a length or so lead coming through the 1500.  And then, credit to them, [Navy] didn’t go away; they stuck at it, and bumped the rate up. We were fighting pretty hard towards the end.”

The second varsity eight also had a tight race, finishing in 6:05.76 with about a one second advantage over Navy. The third varsity and first freshman boats both beat the Midshipmen by a considerable margin, with the Quakers trailing in third. The second freshman eight dropped the only race of the morning, clocking in about 10 seconds behind Navy.

“It was interesting rowing in such open conditions in Annapolis,” Hicks said. “It was more of a river mouth that empties into a bay than a small, confined river. These are conditions that we don’t face too often on the Charles.”

But the Crimson seemed able to adjust to the Annapolis race course.

The challenging conditions allowed Harvard to gain practice for their most important upcoming away races of the season: Sprints and National Championships.

LIGHTWEIGHTS vs. NAVY, GEORGETOWN

The Harvard lightweights competed twice on Saturday, first against No. 8 Navy and then against No. 3 Georgetown, with only nine hours between the two races.

“It is really hard to gear up and race twice in one day like that,” said junior Erich Schultze, three seat of the first varsity eight. “Especially in the league that we race in, with a high quality of teams across the board, you can’t make mistakes.  Having to go through the whole process twice, we had to be both fortunate and strong [Saturday].”

The first varsity eight had a strong race against the Midshipmen, finishing in 6:11.0 with a 3.4-second advantage and allowing Harvard to capture the Haines Cup.

“We had a good start against them, and we were strong at the 1000-meter point,” Schultze said. “They took a really good move and came back into us again at the end of the race. But, we were fortunately able to hold them off.”

The first varsity boat was also successful in its second race of the day against the Hoyas.  The Crimson finished 4.5 seconds ahead of Georgetown, marking one of four Harvard victories of the afternoon.

The second varsity boat faced a different challenge. After losing to Navy by a considerable margin, the Crimson had to bounce back for a successful race against the Hoyas.

“At Navy, we struggled to find our rhythm, but at Georgetown we really found it,” said sophomore Benjamin Hughes, four seat of the second varsity eight. “Against Georgetown, we were able to get a good lead off of them in the first half and expand it in the second, which we hadn’t been able to do in other races. That was a positive mark for us because we were able to stay strong throughout the course of the race.”

The first and second freshman boats both defeated Navy, finishing in 6:22.1 and 6:45.0, respectively. According to Schultze, the victory over the Midshipmen carried special significance.

“Not only has Navy historically been one of our biggest rivals, but their home course is probably one of the most special courses in the league because of the history and intensity of the place,” Schultze said. “To go in there and get a win is one of the hardest things to do.”

—Staff writer Alexa N. Gellman can be reached at agellman@college.harvard.edu.