M., W. Crews Excel At Head Of The Charles

Despite threatening skies and nippy autumn air, thousands of spectators descended on the banks of the Charles this weekend to watch some of the world’s top crews in the fall’s premier rowing event—the XXXIX Head of the Charles Regatta.

The Harvard and Radcliffe crews did not disappoint the assembled masses, each placing one crew in the top ten in both the Championship Eights and Lightweight Eights divisions.

Harvard

The Crimson heavies, a crew just five months removed from a national title and headed by six seniors, rose to meet its elite competition, taking fourth in the Championship Eights in a time of 14:16.940.

Harvard bested its collegiate competition, clocking in 1.88 seconds faster than Princeton, which finished fifth.

Utilizing more power per stroke rather than trying to increase the number of strokes per minute, the crew maintained its high energy level and avoided wearing itself down. But despite the comfortable pace, the Crimson’s time lagged behind the Tigers through the first three split-time posts, spaced approximately one-quarter of the course apart.

“I think we rowed really well for the first two miles,” senior four-seat Jordan Sagalowsky said. “We were at the cadence we wanted and it felt good.”

Trailing by two and then three seconds at the first two markers, Harvard transcended its fatigue and the tough conditions created by Northeastern’s slower boat, quickening its pace to slice Princeton’s lead to 0.35 seconds entering the final stretch of the course.

“The rowing came apart a little bit,” Sagalowsky said. “We got really close to Northeastern, so suddenly we were in the puddles their boat was leaving and the water was rougher.”

Still, the crew pushed onward and pulled away from the Tigers.

“Princeton wasn’t very far behind us,” Sagalowsky said. “We knew they’d be a lot stronger than last year. They have a lot of sophomores.”

The next-closest crew the Crimson has any chance of seeing again this year was the University of California, Berkeley, which finished more than 22 seconds behind Harvard.

The Crimson’s mastery of the Charles was upstaged only by the crews from the Princeton Training Center (14:03.401), Victoria City Rowing Club (14:12.115) and USRowing (14:16.143), the last of which finished less than eight-tenths of a second in front of the Crimson.

Behind the monikers, those crews are simply the U.S. national team, the defending world-champion Canadian national team and another U.S. national team boat.

“Confidence-wise, it’s great,” Sagalowsky said. “It shows we have very good base fitness.”

The U.S. Olympic crew will be drawn from the Princeton Training Center, USRowing and San Diego Training Center crews—the last of which Harvard defeated.

The Princeton Training Center crew led throughout, eking out the fastest time at the first checkpoint at Riverside before distancing itself significantly from the competition. Leading Victoria City by less than a second early on, Princeton Training Center stretched the difference to six seconds by the next timed mark.

“In the latter half, the Princeton Training Center boat behind us had closed on us, and we really made an effort not to let them pass us,” senior six-seat Cameron Winklevoss said. “As we sensed them coming up a little bit, we brought up the pressure.”

The Harvard heavies’ performance shone most brightly in comparison to those three in the course’s final stretch, over which the Crimson boat turned in a faster time than the Canadian national crew, despite the quagmire caused by the Huskies.

“We were a little disappointed,” Winklevoss said. “We thought there was some room for improvement that could have made up the small time difference between us and [USRowing].”

On its home river, the Crimson’s mastery of the water was apparent in relation to the visiting national teams.

“[Senior coxswain] Jesse [Oberst] called the turns as tight as you could possibly expect,” senior three-seat Tyler Winklevoss said. “We were right on the buoy line steering as short a course as possible. The national team boat that did win—compared to them we steered a better course.”

A second crew of Harvard heavies, racing as the Charles River Rowing Association, placed 26th in the challenging field in a time of 15:10.506.

Also racing as the Charles River Rowing Association, the top Crimson lightweight eight placed sixth in the Lightweight Eights division in a time of 14:54.108.

Unlike their heavyweight counterparts, the lights were bested by several of their collegiate rivals, including Yale, which took second in 14:47.594, Princeton and the U.S. Naval Academy, which placed fourth in 14:52.135 and fifth in 14:52.402, respectively.

Harvard started slowly compared to the other crews and quickly settled into its base pace, rather than aggressively pursuing the opening lengths.

The strategy ultimately proved costly as crews picked off seconds from behind en route to faster times.

“We settled down in the piece pretty early,” junior stroke Pat Haas said. “We didn’t attack really for the first minute or so of the piece like we really should have. We settled in and the other crews really attacked that first minute.”

After the initial margins had been established, little changed as the race wore on. Canada’s Brock University Rowing Club made several runs at Harvard on its way to a third-place finish, but the Crimson always responded in kind and was never passed.

“We saw Brock walk up and they had about three seconds on us pretty early in the piece,” Haas said. “That shook us up. We saw them make another attack on us around Anderson [Bridge] and that scared us into getting into gear.”

“From Eliot on everybody realized that we hadn’t had a spectacular piece up to that time and it was time to put it on the line,” he added. “We had a great last 1000 meters but it just wasn’t enough.”

That was the story of the day for the lights. The crew was neither deficient in training nor stamina, but the strength and strategy of its opposition early on proved too much to overcome.

“The row itself didn’t feel bad,” junior bow Mike Kummer said. “I was comfortable. The one thing we weren’t comfortable with was the way every one else did.”

Demonstrating the parity among collegiate lightweight crews, Penn and Cornell placed boats in the two places immediately behind Harvard.

“I think that that’s primarily the trend in lightweight rowing,” Kummer said. “I think it’s going to be similar to last year.”

And that means an up-for-grabs division in which any crew might emerge on top. Key to the Crimson’s success in that endeavor will be the ascension of one of the squad’s members into the leadership roles previously filled by former captain Nick Blannin ’03 and would-be senior Dave Stephens, who is currently training with the Canadian national team.

“We’ve lost probably our two best guys from last season,” Haas said. “We’re kind of looking for someone to step up and take that role these guys last year took, lead us on as far as training goes.”

On this day, the eventual winners came not from the collegiate ranks but hailed from the New York Athletic Club, which finished first in a time of 14:35.133—more than 12 seconds ahead of Yale.

A second Harvard entry placed 16th, clocking in at 15:24.840.

Radcliffe

The Black and White lightweight crew captured second place in the Lightweight Eights division for the second consecutive year, topping foes Wisconsin and Princeton for the second straight Head.

“It was really gratifying, especially after our finishes last year against Princeton,” sophomore stroke Sarah Bates said.

The Tigers defeated Radcliffe five times last season.

The Black and White established an early three-and-a-half-second lead over the Badgers and five-second advantage over Princeton and never looked back.

“It was gratifying to watch us leave Princeton behind, leave ’em in the dust,” Bates said.

By the first checkpoint, Radcliffe challenged even the highly-touted Riverside Boat Club for course supremacy, reaching the post just 1.531 seconds behind, although it ultimately fell short in capturing second overall.

“[Coach Cecile Tucker ’91] wanted us to set up a rhythm in the first mile,” Bates said. “I think it was a mix of adrenaline and being pumped.”

But the Black and White came perilously close to expending all its energy over the first half of the course, with an eight-second lead over Wisconsin dwindling to a final margin of less than two seconds.

“Our strategy was actually a negative split—to row faster in the second mile than in the first mile and faster in the third mile than the second mile,” Bates said.

Given the course conditions and Radcliffe’s level of fitness, the Badgers could not complete the comeback attempt.

“Today we were just thinking about racing the clock,” Bates said. “We were hoping to go for a course record or at least a fast time, which we did.”

Finishing in 17:09.584, Radcliffe was left in the dust by Riverside, which is a feeder for the U.S. national team and finished in 16:47.776.

“Club crews are unpredictable,” Bates said. “You never know who is going to be rowing for them.”

The Radcliffe heavies, defending Eastern and NCAA Champions, finished eighth, improving three spots upon the crew’s finish at the 2002 Head of the Charles.

The London Training Center, USRowing and the Princeton Training Center each shot off during the course’s first leg, distancing themselves from their collegiate opponents by the time they had reached Riverside.

Far behind but itself several seconds ahead of its spring competition, Yale led Princeton by more than six seconds and slowly extended its advantage to nearly 13 seconds.

In the group that followed—the Tigers, Brown, Radcliffe, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia and Wisconsin—short bursts followed by breakdowns led to a twisting battle with several changes in overall position.

The Black and White—fourth in that group as the crews reached Riverside—slid into third when the Cavaliers and Cardinal collapsed as the race neared its end.

But the battle of attrition took its toll on the Black and White, as the crew finished nearly eight seconds behind Brown and nine and a half behind Princeton while just barely eking out a three-tenths of a second victory over the Wolverines.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.