Men's Heavyweight Crew Captures 15th Straight Adams Cup

It was a full day of racing on Saturday for the men of Harvard rowing. The heavyweight crew headed down to Philadelphia and came out victorious against the University of Pennsylvania and Navy. The lightweights had a tougher time stroking past its competitors on the Charles, coming in second place against Princeton and Yale.

HEAVYWEIGHTS

The Crimson had a strong performance in the Adams cup down in Philadelphia on Saturday, coming in first place for the first and second varsity boats by roughly a two-second margin in each race.

“Coming into this weekend, we knew both Penn and Navy would be strong,” captain Andrew Holmes said. “So we were anticipating some very tough racing.”

Harvard raced three varsity and two novice boats and came away with three first-place finishes. The first varsity finished with a time of five minutes, 34.6 seconds, the second varsity with a time of 5:44.8, and the first novice boat with a time of 5:35.5.

“Our freshmen had one of their best performances of the season and blew away their opposition to win by more than 15 seconds,” Holmes said.

The Naval Academy took the other two races, finishing on top in the third varsity with a time of 5:45.8, a full six seconds ahead of the Crimson, and placed first in the second novice boat, which was Harvard’s only last-place finish of the day.

“Navy is always the most physical opponent that we face, and Penn have been gaining speed all season,” Holmes said. “To come away with wins in the Freshmen, 2V and 1V races was a great result for us.”

The first place finish down on the Schuylkill River marked the 15th consecutive win of the Adams Cup for the Crimson.

LIGHTWEIGHTS

The lightweight crew hosted two major Ivy League competitors on the Charles this weekend. Harvard finished in between Princeton and Yale, with the Tigers taking the victory and going home with the Vogal Cup.

“The HYP regatta is always a very intense and exciting weekend of racing,” captain Zander Bonorris said. “[We’re] all typically powerhouses in lightweight rowing, and so to have all three of those teams together in Newell Boathouse is exciting, and you can tell that the pressure is on.”

In first varsity, Yale finished a fraction of a second behind Princeton, which had a time of 5:49.7. The Tigers finished with large margins of victory in its other first-place races—second and third varsity and second novice.

“I was very impressed with Princeton’s depth this year, from the top boat to the third varsity,” Bonorris said.

The Tigers took home 33 points while the Crimson finished up with 27 and the Bulldogs from New Haven caught 19.

“I expected our boats to come out with aggression and intensity, considering the heightened competitive spirit at this regatta, and that would definitely be an accurate summary of the racing,” Bonorris said.

Harvard’s strongest performance was in the first novice boat, which finished with a time of 5:56.3, three seconds ahead of Yale.

The Crimson came in third place for the first varsity, several seconds behind its competitors with a time of 5:55.8. The crew came in last two other times, in third varsity with a time of 6:10.3, seven seconds behind the Tigers, and in second novice with a time of 6:36.4, over 12 seconds behind Yale and Princeton.

“We were expecting some ferocious competition this weekend, and we definitely got that,” Bonorris said. “The Harvard boats fought hard, and while we fell short this weekend, we are always looking to improve and gain more speed in the next three weeks.”

The Crimson has a little break before the EARC Sprints.

“For most of the team, Sprints will be the last race of the season,” Bonorris said. “This race was a good experience to have because we were able to test our speed against some of the fastest boats in the league.”

Using this weekend’s setback, Harvard has an opportunity to motivate its crew to improve before the EARC Sprints.

“While we might not have gotten the results that we wanted, I think that the feeling on the team is that if we put our heads down, and grind for three weeks, that we can come out of it stronger and faster, and that we can show some more speed at Sprints,” Bonorris said.

“Every race is another opportunity to find out something more about oneself, to improve boatspeed, and to become a better racer,” she added. “The racing from the Crimson showed this attitude and determination to improve.”

—Staff writer Tanner Skenderian can be reached at tskenderian@college.harvard.edu.