M. Heavyweights Upset at Sprints

All the pieces were set. Harvard’s varsity boat rolled in with the top seed and the momentum of an undefeated season, but Wisconsin thwarted the Crimson’s run at the Eastern Sprints crown this weekend in Worcester.

The first varsity boat was forced to settle for second place but still won the Ivy title, thus earning First-Team All-Ivy honors for its nine members. Harvard’s top-seeded second varsity and third-seeded freshman freshman boats won their events.

Though Wisconsin, seeded third, won the varsity event, Harvard garnered the Rowe Cup for the 25th time and the first since 1992. Harvard earned the honor by accumularing 39 points, more than any other crew.

Wisconsin’s triumph in the marquis event was the program’s first win in the varsity heavyweight race.

In the Grand Final, Harvard was even with the Badgers early, while Northeastern lagged behind by a couple seats and Princeton, Cornell and Penn trailed farther behind. The Crimson made a move to move ahead at the 500-meter mark, but Wisconsin mirrored Harvard to stay even. The Badgers pulled away in the middle 1000.

“Wisco had four seats on us from the 500 to the 1000,” senior Hugo Mallinson said. “They took a big move at 1000. In the last 500, we sprinted back on them a bit, but it wasn’t enough to pull through them.”

Wisconsin finished in 5:36.6, ahead of the Crimson’s 5:38.08. Defending champion Princeton took third, posting a time of 5:42.69, edging out Northeastern’s 5:43.09.

Wisconsin and Cornell were the top competitors that Harvard had not seen before, and while the Badgers proved to be the Crimson’s biggest threat, the Big Red finished fifth in 5:46.26. Despite racing in the EARC, Wisconsin has few regattas against teams in the east, making it difficult to guage the Badgers’ speed aside from paper rankings.

While Harvard was disappointed with the result of the first varsity event, the Crimson’s success in the second varsity and freshman events drew excitement.

“Everyone’s incredibly happy about it,” Mallinson said. “The freshmen had an up and down season and everyone was hoping they’d come out on top and they did. The JV—no one has been able to touch them all season. We’ve got a bunch of sophomores who’ve never lost at Sprints.”

Harvard’s second boat preserved its perfect season, pulling a 5:41.26 over second-seed Cornell’s 5:43.76. Wisconsin, seeded fifth, earned third place with 5:46.75.

The Crimson dealt well with the tailwind on the course, getting off to a clean start and following through with its plan to ignore the other boats during the first 500 meters.

By the 1000-meter mark, Harvard had established its lead and only had to bring it home.

“We were up about half alength on Wisconsin at the 1000-meter mark, and a length up on Cornell,” sophomore Will Riffelmacher said. “We started to bring the rate up with 600 to go.”

The Crimson maintained its advantage through the sprint to win the race.

“Obviously we’re thrilled to have won Sprints twice,” Riffelmacher said. “The varsity’s loss puts a bit of a damper on our feelings, but those guys just rowed their heart out and came up a little bit short.”

Earlier, the freshman eight—seeded second—pulled in a title in 5:51.39, ahead of Brown’s 5:54.98. Yale finished third while top-seed Princeton fell to fourth.

Traditionally, boats that earn Eastern titles are also awarded the option of racing in the Henley Royal Regatta, pending funding. Last year, Harvard’s first freshman boat won the Temple Challenge Cup. But, as a significant number of rowers from that boat now row in the second varsity boat, the 2V is not eligible to race for the Temple, though this year’s freshmen are. The 2V could race for the Ladies’ Challenge Plate, which Harvard won in 1998, or could split into fours and enter another event.

“We’d want to enter an event where we’d be highly competitive,” Riffelmacher said. “We wouldn’t want to go and lose in the first round.”

Harvard’s 3V boat suffered its first loss of the season to fellow 3V competition as the Badgers won in 6:02.85. The Crimson posted a time of 6:05.54 while Cornell finished third in 6:07.8.

Harvard’s second freshman eight finished in fourth place in 6:16.05 while Navy won the race in 6:10.04. Princeton and Cornell finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Though the school year is coming to an end, the season for Harvard and Radcliffe rowers continues. For the Crimson heavyweights, the nation’s oldest intercollegiate event looms in the horizon—the Harvard-Yale regatta, to be raced for the 137th time on June 8th.

Harvard will not have a chance to race Wisconsin again, nor will it test its speed against Berkeley or Washington, the other top crews in the country. The opportunity would come at the IRAs, a championship regatta that begins on May 30. Harvard will already be training at Red Top—the Yale boathouse—as the Crimon faces the longest crew race in the nation, with a four-mile course in the varsity event.

“We’ve got one more race to focus on,” Mallinson said. “No matter how disappointed anyone is not to get another race against these guys, I don’t think anyone would give up racing Yale,” Mallinson said.