Under Bright Skies, Crew Returns

For the first time in several years, the sun shined upon the Head of the Charles Regatta.

But in the absence of rain, a fierce headwind controlled the 3.1-mile course on Saturday, causing several collisions under bridges and making for difficult steering throughout the Regatta’s opening day.

Most Harvard and Radliffe boats, however, had the luxury of the spectator’s seat on Saturday, and calmer winds on Sunday gave way to optimal conditions for almost all of the Crimson and Black and White entries.

The Harvard heavyweight four earned the best finish of the day on the men’s side, finishing fourth out of 18 entries and second amongst university crews.

“Even though it’s the fall, it’s still a race, and we still get excited for it,” senior stroke Andrew Boston said. “It breaks up the fall season—the fall season is a really long season, and this is a fun weekend. Rowing-wise, it’s fun to get on a race course and get some hard strokes in and get the season going.”

HARVARD CREW

The Crimson—whose boathouse rests in the heart of the course and whose crews are so numerous each October—is often considered the unofficial host for the Head of the Charles.

And as has become custom, Harvard provided the requisite hospitality and competition, serving up the delicate mix of humor and hard work that makes the regatta unique amongst fall competitions.

A Harvard men’s heavyweight eight dressed as a rainbow, with coxswain Tope Amos clothed as the cloud. Two varsity lightweight eights donned spray-painted T-shirts proclaiming “Team Butt,” after varsity lightweight head coach Charley Butt.

“People were laughing about that—I don’t understand why,” senior Brian Aldrich joked afterwards. “I guess they like Charley, too.”

On the water, it was the men’s heavyweight four that asserted its dominance yet again for the Crimson. The senior-laden boat faced stiff university competition from Stanford, an infrequent Head of the Charles participant that sent a loaded heavyweight four to the event this year.

“They have two guys from the [U23] national team on that boat,” senior two-seat Phil Kaiser said. “This year they have a strong team.”

The Crimson (15:54.197) finished less than two seconds behind the Cardinal (15:52.289), but trailed Stanford by just 0.17 seconds after the first half of the race. Stanford rowed a blazing last two miles to nip both Harvard and the USRowing entry, which finished third with a time of 15:52.862. The Thunderbird Rowing Club took first in dominant fashion, outpacing the field by 14 seconds with a time of 15:38.135. Navy’s four finished third amongst college crews and seventh overall in 16:21.225.

“This is a really good gauge for us,” said Kaiser of the fall’s first competition. “These results let us see what sort of work we need to do in the winter.”

The men’s heavyweight eights had mixed results in championship eight competition, as the two entries finished No. 15 and No. 19, respectively. An eight composed of sophomores turned in the No. 15 finish with a time of 14:48.958, while a boat of juniors and seniors took No. 19 in 14:56.289.

“Our own boat’s finish was pretty disappointing,” said junior George Kitovitz, who stroked the junior boat. “But overall our squad did really well. We’re not aiming for a specific result—we’re just trying to put in a strong overall performance as a team.”

Harvard traditionally focuses its efforts on the championship four and championship eight events, with the four usually occupied by seniors or the members with the most varsity experience.

Other collegiate programs—notably Cal, last year’s national champion, and Princeton, the IRA silver medalist—stack the championship eight event with their varsity eights.

The University of Washington was the first collegiate boat to finish in the championship eight event, coming in with a time of 14:21.917—just 11 seconds off the pace of the winning US national team entry.

Harvard’s entries finished No. 10 and No. 14, respectively, amongst college entries, as Yale made a statement No. 3 finish, Brown finished No. 5, and the University of Wisconsin eight took No. 6 overall.

The Crimson outpaced archrival Princeton over the first mile, but the Tigers took advantage of a dominant second mile to move ahead of Harvard.

Eventually, Princeton bested Cal in the last mile to finish just ahead of the Golden Bears’ squad that beat the Tigers in last year’s IRA final.

“We’re happy to compete against other school’s top varsity crews,” Kitovitz said. “The emphasis is very much on the spring but at the same time it’s a big competition and we’re all going for it.”

The Harvard varsity lightweights turned in a No. 11 finish on Saturday, yet again came in mere tenths of a second behind Cornell. The Big Red bested the Crimson by 0.076 seconds to take home IRA gold a year ago.

Yesterday, Cornell’s time of 15:04.670 was three-tenths better than Harvard’s, which finished in 15:04.998.

The Crimson’s slow first mile put the varsity eight at No. 13 heading into the latter two miles of the course. A slight push in the second mile moved Harvard up to No. 12, but rival entries from Princeton, Navy, Georgetown, and Penn already had 10-second cushions over the Crimson going into the last mile of the race.

“We do train hard for this, but fall is more getting back in shape and having fun with it,” Aldrich said. “We take it seriously at the same time, though. It’s not spring-caliber racing, but on a day like this we’re disappointed.”

Harvard made up valuable time in the last mile, shaving five seconds off of Cornell’s lead and three seconds off of Navy’s advantage.

The Princeton lightweights finished No. 1 amongst collegiate crews in 14:48.719, while Navy, Penn, Georgetown and Cornell rounded out the top five. The Crimson placed No. 6 amongst collegiate crews, and Yale followed at No. 7 after suffering a 10-second penalty.

Harvard’s second varsity entry finished at No. 18—and No. 11 among university entries.

RADCLIFFE

The Head of the Charles can do many things for a crew. It can give a clear starting point to a team, experience to new members, and training for an entire squad.

For a Radcliffe crew that focuses primarily on a sprints season still far in the future, the importance of the fall spectacle can be limited.

Team members do not generally focus on results; both Radcliffe crews know the fall season is training, and each race readies the boat for the future.

“From our perspective, the fall is a build-up to the spring,” lightweight co-captain Jennifer Chung said. “To have this under our belt, it gives us confidence and tells us what we need to do to step it up.”

What the Black and White heavyweights and lightweights accomplished on the Charles yesterday may be less than groundbreaking in the big picture of women’s crew, but for the fall racing season, it showed a lot.

“We had a really solid row, so we are excited for this being a starting point,” junior heavyweight Esther Lofgren said. “We see what we have to do as motivation in the winter season.”

The lightweights raced only their varsity eight. As for the quad competition, each team entered a lottery to gain a spot on the river. Radcliffe did not attain the coveted position.

But the varsity eight held its own on the river.

Under new senior captains Chung and Lesley Burkett, the crew notched a No. 5 time, finishing just more than ten seconds behind reigning national champion Wisconsin with a time of 17:40.726. The Badgers clocked in at 17:26.851.

The top national collegiate boat, however, was the Black and White’s long-time Ivy rival Princeton, as its varsity eight came in second overall with an impressive time of 17:12.974. As the boat passed in front of Anderson Bridge, it had already passed the squad it launched off after, a sign of a strong effort from the team.

The finish was better than expected for the crew, as the Radcliffe lightweights generally begin training and competing later than rival squads.

On the heavyweight side, the crew raced to a No. 15 position in the women’s championship eight. The team looked strong on the river and maintained a high stroke rate, but the result did not meet the team’s expectations.

Still, members expressed confidence about what they can hope to achieve.

“We are excited to see what we can do now,” Lofgren said. “We were fine on the stroke rating but we need to keep being aggressive to maintain that motivation for us.”

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.