No. 1 M Lightweight Crew Cruises Past Dartmouth, MIT on Charles

The Harvard men’s lightweight crew lived up to its billing as the top team in the nation on Saturday, soundly defeating No. 8 Dartmouth and MIT to capture the Biglin Bowl on the Charles River on Saturday.

The victory for the Crimson was the 42nd overall and the ninth in 10 years.

Despite the dark rain clouds, which cast a pall over the day’s events, conditions on the water were quite favorable, and Harvard took advantage.

“[Conditions] were pretty good, some of the best we’ve actually raced on out in the basin,” junior Alex Binkley said. “It can be pretty bad there. A couple years ago we had rollers that were about three feet high.”

None of the boats faced such obstacles this weekend, as the rains tempered the winds, producing a flat racing surface.

Utilizing the conditions well, the Crimson’s varsity boat (5-0) stroked to an early lead and never lost control.

Maintaining its pace and stretching its lead throughout the length of the course, Harvard established a lead of two boat lengths over Dartmouth prior to finishing with a 6.1-second margin of victory, crossing the line in 6:09.7.

“We go out there and pull hard every stroke,” Binkley said. “We didn’t have a set plan of how we were going to go out and attack Dartmouth. We knew they’d start hard and take a move around the middle, but we were going to race our race on how it felt.”

Though the team has had little experience so far this season on the Charles compared to years past, and individual boats are only beginning to take shape, the different configurations have worked well thus far.

“We still have a lot of work to fully solidify them,” captain Nick Blannin said. “But we’re producing a good amount of speed.”

The extended winter has certainly hampered that effort, but the squad seems to have overcome nature’s curveball. Experience has played no small part in equipping this squad to overcome such unexpected obstacles.

“Most guys have rowed for at least six years, and we’re all used to it,” Binkley said. “We know there are going to be long winters. We can’t really get mad at that. Everybody else has the same problem as well.”

While the effort showed improvement over last weekend’s performance, none seemed to view this race as the pinnacle of the team’s potential.

“This weekend the racing was stronger,” Binkley said. “We need to work harder through the middle of the piece. It’s getting better every time; we’re rowing better together.”

And in spite of everything, the rowers are confident that they have put themselves in a solid position for the remainder of the season.

“We’re taking the same approach we take every year,” Blannin said. “We’re trying to develop our fundamental skills before really maximizing our speed.

“We’re on track to perform, to put out a good performance in the championship races. Obviously we want to do well in the dual races, but we’re viewing them more as a step along the way,” he added.

The next step comes this Saturday on the Charles when the Crimson lights square off against Navy in the Haines Cup.

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