Harvard Crew Brings Victory Home to Cambridge in Weekend Rallies

Crimson waters wafted with victory once more as Harvard crew teams secured medals and retained cups in Northeast rivers outside of the Charles this past weekend.

While the women’s heavyweight rowing team was unable to outpace No. 14 Syracuse, the Radcliffe Lightweights took home two silver medals down in New Jersey. The men’s heavyweight team also picked up the Stein Cup in Seekonk River, defeating the No. 6 Brown Bears.

WOMEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING

The Knecht Cup Regatta in Cherry Hill, N.J. was nothing short of an exhilarating race for the Black and White.

In the grand final of the fours, the team placed first in the entire event. On the second day of the race, the No. 2 Radcliffe Lightweights pulled off two second-place finishes in the final race and petite final of the Varsity Eights.

The first place finish came from one of the womens’ doubles boats, passing Beantown neighbors, the Boston University Terriers, by a swift 2.95 seconds. The other Radcliffe Fours boat was only 0.94 seconds behind the other boat of Terriers.

These fast-recorded times earned both Varsity Four boats a spot in the grand finals for the second day of the regatta.

The Varsity Eight boat pulled in only 3.11 seconds behind No. 3 Stanford to take the silver medal home to Cambridge. The Terriers only missed the second-place finish by 0.27 seconds, taking third place.

The second boat of Varsity Eights competed in the petite final, but were outpaced by Delaware by 2.38 seconds.

Next up for the lightweights is a race against hometown rivals Boston University and MIT for a friendly bout on the Charles River on April 16.

WOMEN’S HEAVYWEIGHT ROWING

The Radcliffe Heavyweights traveled down to Saratoga Springs, N.Y. for the Saratoga Invitational. The Black and White were not able to stop the Syracuse Varsity Eight boat, which outpaced the Crimson by an eighteen-second margin.

In the first two races of the day, the Varsity Fours and Eights, both Crimson boats finished in third place. The Varsity Fours and Eights boats of heavyweights both came short of beating Princeton by just over 12 seconds in each race.

The Crimson fell short again to Princeton in the third Varsity Eight race, but pulled off a nail-biting 3.2 victory to Cornell in the first flight. In the second boat of fours followed with a 3 second victory over Syracuse in the final race of the day.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, these two victories were not enough to keep No. 14 Syracuse from retaining the Elizabeth H. O’Leary Cup, a trophy named after Radcliffe Coach Liz O’Leary. During the mid-afternoon, two Syracuse boats of varsity eights reeled into the finish line in under seven minutes.

The Radcliffe Heavyweights will next travel down to Housatonic River in Connecticut for a regatta against Yale and Northeastern on April 23.

MEN’S HEAVYWEIGHT ROWING

The No. 5 Harvard men’s heavyweight rowing team won big over No. 6 Brown for the Stein Cup in Providence, R.I. this past weekend.

There were five races on the Seekonk River, and Harvard was victorious in four out of the five.

The Crimson outpaced the Bears by 4.3 seconds in the Varsity Eight race to win the cup.

In the other four races, Harvard dominated Brown in varying second margins. The 3V and 4V boats each beat the Bears by 21.3 seconds, with the 4V boat pulling in in under seven minutes.

Though the heavyweight 2V boat lost to Brown by just 10.9 seconds, the fifth varsity boat called for a photo finish with Harvard finishing first by a fast 2.4 seconds.

This marks yet another Stein Cup victory for Harvard. The Heavyweights will now turn their heads towards a rally on the Charles River with age-old rival Princeton this Saturday, April 16.

MENS LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING

Though the men’s lightweight rowing team did not compete this weekend, the crew will next hold the Biglin Bowl on home waters against Ivy rival Dartmouth and red line neighbor MIT this Saturday, April 16.

— Staff writer Mairead Baker can be reached at mairead.baker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @baker_mairead.