On the Other Side of History

In 43 years, Crimson coach Harry Parker has seen almost everything.

But a varsity loss to Princeton on the Charles? Not even Parker, the legendary coach of the Harvard varsity heavyweights, could claim to have witnessed that in his four-plus decades in Newell boathouse.

Until Saturday, that is, as the No. 1 Tigers spoiled an otherwise beautiful day on the Charles with its first varsity win over the Crimson in Cambridge since before Parker took over in 1963.

The 3.2-second victory as well as a Princeton win in the first freshman race sealed the Tigers’ first Compton Cup win since 2001.

“A loss is a loss and it always hurts,” captain four-seat Morgan Henderson said. “But we got some valuable things from it that we’re going to take away for the future.”

The No. 5 Harvard varsity entered the race as a considerable underdog, as the Crimson fell by a seat to Brown the week before and Princeton had routed Penn by 21 seconds on Lake Carnegie.

Recent Princeton-Harvard races, however, have been anything but one-sided, and Saturday’s race began as no exception. A Crimson varsity that had worked all week on racing more aggressively took off from the start with a solid first 20 strokes, jumping the senior-laden Tigers by three seats before both boats settled into the first 500.

“Having raced them so much last year, we knew they are an incredibly good boat,” varsity five-seat Toby Medaris said. “We knew it was going to be an incredibly hard and very fast race.”

And for the first 800 meters, Harvard held its own. The Crimson maintained the three-seat advantage throughout the first half of the race, keeping Princeton at bay as both boats approached the Mass. Ave. bridge at the halfway point.

“We really worked on aggression during the week—just really going after it,” Henderson said. “I think the race was a success from that perspective. We took it to a whole new level, but the rowing wasn’t quite there.”

For 800 meters, it was there—but the last 1,200 meters belonged to the nation’s No. 1 boat from Lake Carnegie. The Tigers, perched two lanes to the outside of Harvard, used the Mass. Ave. Bridge to make its first move, taking four seats to claim a one-seat lead at the midway mark.

Princeton plowed through the third 500 meters, adding five to six seats to its lead.

“They must really push hard at about the 1,000 meter mark,” Medaris said, “and I don’t think we had enough to go with them at that point.”

The Tigers finished in 6:00.9 and Harvard followed in 6:04.25, a full boatlength behind.

The Princeton varsity, composed of eight seniors who had been turned away by the Crimson three times last season, finally broke through on a Saturday that marked the end of two streaks. It brought to a close Harvard’s four-decade domination of the Tigers on the Charles, and the win was Princeton’s first over the Crimson in 11 tries.

“It’s going to be different this year,” Henderson said. “We haven’t been as dominant as we were last year so early on in the season. The season is definitely progressing slightly differently than it did last year.”

The Crimson’s second varsity, however, served up its second straight rout in a near 10-second win over the Tigers.

A week after trouncing Brown in an open-water win in Providence, the Harvard second varsity returned to its home course with a recipe for more of the same.

The Crimson’s success at the start continued on Saturday, as the second varsity sprinted out to a near boatlength lead after the first 25 strokes.

By that point, the race was already in the books.

“We didn’t look back, and we just kept on marching,” sophomore stroke George Kitovitz said. “It was a very dominant race.”

The Harvard second varsity spent the rest of the race adding more open water to its already insurmountable lead, and the Crimson had over two lengths of open water as both crews passed the 1,200 meter mark.

“We knew Princeton was going to be strong,” Kitovitz said. “It was just a testament to how good our week of training was. It’s nice to win those sorts of races.”

Harvard sprinted through the finish in a time of 6:23.25, and Princeton followed well behind in a time of 6:33.1. MIT, which raced against both varsity boats, finished well out of the hunt.

The win moves the Harvard second varsity to a 3-0 record in the young season, with all victories coming in open-water wins. The heavyweights will take on Navy and Penn in Annapolis next weekend in the Adams Cup, which the Crimson has claimed in each of the last six seasons.

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