One To Go: Heavies Stay Perfect at Sprints

WORCESTER—Spectators who went to the EARC Eastern Sprints yesterday hoping for an underdog victory for their teams in the men’s heavyweight championships were set to be disappointed, for the day belonged from the start to top seed Harvard.

The Crimson began the day well with strong performances in the morning heats that guaranteed every boat a place in the Grand Final for its respective event, and earned a number of victories in the afternoon finals to win the Rowe Cup for the best overall team, as well as the Ivy League title.

The finals began with the second freshman boat, which beat back an aggressive push from BU to cross the line first, in 5:53.90 to BU’s 5:55.18. Navy followed in third.

“We only beat BU by a little in dual racing so I think we knew they would be the crew to beat,” coxswain Kelly Evans said. “We were one seat down at the start, were even at the 1000, and started to pull ahead and were bow to stern at 500 to go, though I think they came back up on us a bit at the end.”

The third varsity boat also took first in 5:47.1, a single second ahead of Syracuse, with Brown in third place.

“We got off to a good start and had a good rhythm,” seven-seat Breffny Morgan said. “The other teams put on a big push coming into the last quarter but we lengthened the stroke and held them off.”

The freshman eight, undefeated on the season entering the day, and the second varsity eight were the only boats not to garner gold in their finals, both walking away with silver medals instead.

The freshmen took second to a speedy Brown boat that finished in 5:39.008 to the Crimson’s 5:41.044. After an early lead by Yale, the Bears and the Crimson pulled ahead of the field, Brown taking a few seats on Harvard, and continued in front to the finish line, with Princeton coming in just behind the Crimson in third.

The second varsity were edged at the line as well, by Wisconsin, after the Badgers took control in the first 500 and didn’t look back. Harvard walked through Brown to take second, as did Cornell, throwing the Bears off the podium into fourth place.

The varsity race, however, reignited the winning streak, with a dominant performance from start to finish, a relief after last year’s slightly disappointing second-place showing for the varsity.

After an initial false start, the Crimson quickly sprang ahead and led the field for the rest of the 2000 meters, with a push in the last 500 that improved its lead.

“I don’t think we were down at all going out of the start,” said stroke George Kitovitz, mentioning how often the team’s starts are weak in comparison to its middle 1000. “Today the start was good, the middle 1000 was very strong, and we had a good sprint at the end.”

So good, in fact, that the varsity eight once again set a new course record for Lake Quinsigamond, with 5:27.005. The previous record was set by Harvard’s varsity eight in 2005.

A strong tailwind for the varsity race helped the record pace, but had its drawbacks as well.

“It wasn’t easy to row in today because there were waves, but at least they were going in our direction,” Kitovitz said.

Yale, which head coach Harry Parker described as “very strong,” placed second in 5:29.404, not having let the Crimson shake it all race.

Wisconsin placed third, Princeton fourth, and Brown—in a somewhat surprising result, given its top seeding after the morning’s heats—fifth, with Syracuse bringing up the rear.

Parker said that he was a “little surprised” by Brown’s result.

“I thought they would be stronger,” he said. “I’d guess they just didn’t handle the conditions.”

He also said that finding the right lineup early this year had helped the varsity achieve what they hadn’t in 2006.

“Every boat has its own chemistry,” he said. “This year it’s a little more cohesive and hasn’t changed so much. Last year we were changing the lineup constantly. I don’t think we really got it until the end.”

Captain and second varsity six-seat Nick Baker expressed pleasure with the overall team performance, particularly with the breadth of the success.

“The results speak for themselves,” he said. “It was nice to have all the boats do so well, including the 2F and 3V wins. Those boats, where we make lineup changes during the year, sometimes have a tougher time.”

Kitovitz agreed, particularly applauding the third varsity for doing so well after a lineup change only this week.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It showed real depth.”

Next up the Crimson heads to IRAs in a couple of weeks to compete for the national championship against crews from the West as well as East Coast, including Pac-10 winner Washington.

“Just because we won the day doesn’t mean in a couple of weeks we will,” Kitovitz said. “We just need to keep working on improving, and we can expect our opponents to have the same thing in mind.”

“We know the West Coast teams are going to be strong,” Baker agreed. “But if this is any indication, this team can win, and we know that we’ve got what it takes to compete with them.”

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu.