Men's and Women's Crew Post Successful Weekend Finishes

Both the men’s and women’s crew teams were back in action this weekend, taking on some of the top teams in the nation. Facing below-average temperatures and windy conditions, the Harvard teams were able to walk away with various victories as they look to build momentum for the home stretches of their seasons.

Men’s Heavyweights

The No. 6 heavyweight team traveled to Providence, R.I. for the Stein Cup. The team edged out No. 5 Brown to take home the championship for the sixth straight year.

All of the races, except for the fifth varsity four race, were won by three seconds or less. In the V8 race, the Crimson, which finished at 5:35.8, edged out the Bears by just two seats. The second varsity eight boat also won, edging out Brown by three seconds.

The Crimson only lost two races, the third varsity and fifth varsity four races, dropping the former by 0.9 seconds. With the overall win, Harvard extends its series lead over Brown to 43-9.

Men’s Lightweights

The No. 5 men’s lightweight team had a full weekend, facing Cornell, Penn, and Georgetown in its season opener.

A week after its heavyweight teammates made the trip, the lightweight team traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., for its races against No. 2 Cornell and No. 6 Penn. The race had an early start, for impending weather conditions on Saturday forced the race to take place Friday evening.

Penn, after having the best finish in a decade in its races last weekend, and Cornell, the two-time national champions which hadn’t lost a race in two years, were ready to chip away at the Crimson’s all-time series lead against the two teams.

Harvard maintained its series lead with a split—a win against Penn and a loss against Cornell. The first and second varsity races were close, and came down to the very end of the course. In the V8 race, Harvard was half a boat behind Cornell, and just one second ahead of Penn. The Big Red, which has won the last two races against its Ivy rivals, finished at 5:51.2, the Crimson at 5:54.3, and the Quakers at 5:55.6.

The second varsity also fell to Cornell by three seconds, though it won against Penn by a wider margin. The third, fourth, and fifth varsity races were not as close as the first two, but all ended with the Crimson capturing second place.

“We’re just keep tinkering, trying to find those extra seconds, and just keep our nose to the grindstone and try to make a good run until we see Cornell again at the Eastern Sprints,” co-captain Sam Frum said.

The team returned to the Charles for its Sunday race against Georgetown. It was a bittersweet race for the seniors, who were rowing in their last home race this weekend. Inspired by its senior leaders, the team pushed through a strong headwind and low temperatures to sweep the Hoyas. In all five races, Harvard won in open water.

“We’ve got a lot of experience in our first varsity boat and a lot of youth below that so I think it was really good for the freshmen to really get their first taste of dual racing in the Ivy League,” Frum said. “It’s fierce, it’s competitive, and it’s a whole lot of fun.”

At the end of the race, the team honored its seniors, who gave words of advice to the rest of the team, and held a naming ceremony for a new boat that they had just received.

Women’s Heavyweights

Also on Cayuga Lake was the No. 17 Radcliffe heavyweight team, which was there for some Ivy League action against host Cornell and No. 9 Princeton. Like the men’s lightweight team, Radcliffe’s races were also moved up a day due to weather.

This weekend, the Black and White, which had split in its last race on the Charles this season, was up against a Big Red crew that had just picked up four wins in adverse weather, and a Tigers team that had split against the top team in the country and Columbia.

The Princeton varsity eight boat took the Class of 1979 cup for the eighth time in nine years, extending its lead in the all-time series to 26-12-1. The Tigers crossed the finish line at 6:23.5, and Radcliffe trailed by nine seconds to finish at 6:32.6. Cornell rounded out the race seven seconds later at 6:39.3.

The second and third varsity eight boats also placed second in their respective races, with times of 6:52.3 and 7:05.7, respectively.

The varsity four races had the same results as the varsity eight, with second place finishes across the board. The A and B boats finished nine and eight seconds behind first-place Princeton, while the C boat fell to Cornell by open water.

Women’s Lightweights

The No. 2 lightweight team competed against No. 1 Stanford, No. 3 BU, No. 4 Wisconsin, No. 6 Tulsa, No. 7 MIT, and Georgetown for its second straight Knecht Cup title at Mercer Lake, N.J. over the weekend.

“This was our first two-day, multiple race regatta of the year,” junior co-captain Ruby Emberling said. “Preparing mentally for those is so different. You have to make sure you're fueled and ready to go all out more than once.”

Both A and B lightweight eight boats finished in the top three of their respective heats to send them to the Grand Final. In the final race, the boats finished fourth and fifth, with times of 6:47.20 and 6:53.94 respectively. The Black and White was bested by the A boats from top-ranked Stanford, which won with a time of 6:35.96, BU, and Wisconsin.

Radcliffe’s lightweight four boat also made it to the final race, after finishing with a second-place time of 8:23.34 in the qualifying race. In the final, it finished fifth out of six boats, with a time of 7:53.46. Stanford, Villanova, Princeton A, and MIT A bested the Black and White in this highly competitive race.

“This was also our first chance to see a lot of the faster competition in the lightweight rowing world,” Emberling said. “We held our own and I'm excited to see how we continue to stack up to other teams in coming weekends.”

—Staff writer Katherine H. Scott can be reached at katherine.scott@thecrimson.com.