Heavyweights Handed Unexpected Loss

In a surprising twist to the start of the spring dual racing season, the Harvard men’s heavyweight crew team suffered an unexpected loss to Brown on the Seekonk River Saturday afternoon.

Despite a strong team effort—the Crimson won four of the day’s five races—Harvard’s varsity eight came up short in its event, posting a time of 6:28.83. The Bears finished the race in 6:23.73 on their way to winning the Stein Cup. Since the inception of the program, the Crimson has won the cup 36 times, while Brown took the Stein Cup for just the seventh time on Saturday.

“The varsity race was pretty tough,” captain four-seat Joe Medioli said. “We started relatively strong, but the conditions were really pretty hard to handle. We very much believe that we’re faster than they are, so for us it’s disappointing because we just didn’t work well.”

The varsity eight—racing in the last event of the day—was forced to row at high tide and through a strong headwind that created choppy water and high-rolling waves.

“To Brown’s credit, they handled the conditions much better than we did,” Medioli said. “Ideally, the conditions shouldn’t play a big role, but in this case they did, and they affected us negatively.”

“It was a circus out there,” senior Breffny Morgan added.

The two varsity crews remained close throughout the first half of the race as both Harvard and Brown jumped out to a quick start. The Crimson made its move in the second 500 meters to take the lead and hoped also to control the pace of the race. Its efforts were rewarded with a narrow, two-seat advantage about 1000 meters in.

However, early in the third 500 meters, as the Bears made several pushes to pull even and walk away, it became evident that the strength and energy Harvard expended to gain the lead at the 1000-meter mark came at a high price.

Fatigue, combined with the difficult racing conditions, caused the Crimson to lose control of the boat’s set and rhythm, allowing Brown to walk up and take seats. After taking the lead, the Bears never looked back, moving away from Harvard until it had an open-water lead at the finish.

“We definitely need to work on getting the ports and starboards to row consistently together over a longer period of time,” Medioli said. “We’re more than sure we’re strong enough—it’s just a question of getting the rowing together.”

The varsity race was the only win Brown saw on the day, as the Crimson claimed victories in the second varsity, third varsity, freshman eight, and freshman four races.

In the second varsity race, Harvard rowed a strong race from start to end to handily defeat the Bears. After a solid start, the Crimson hung with the Brown’s crew through the first 500—no easy task given the Bears’ reputation as fast starters.

“Brown basically throws the kitchen sink at you in the first 500, so whenever we race them, they’ve been incredibly aggressive at the start,” Morgan said. “They didn’t pull ahead any great amount in the first sequence so that put us in a good position to make our move in the middle.”

Indeed, Harvard moved through and away from Brown in the middle 1000 and then used a strong sprint to finish two boatlengths up with a time of 6:12.95.

Racing in the same event, both Harvard’s third varsity and fourth varsity boats claimed open-water victories over Brown’s third varsity crew, indicating the team’s depth.

The first freshman boat claimed its first collegiate dual race win by a two-second margin. Although the two crews started off even, Brown moved away through the second 500 meters and led throughout the majority of the race. By the last 500 meters, Harvard took the lead for the first time with a strong sprint against a dying Bears crew and never looked back, crossing the finish line first and clocking in at 6:42.21. The Bears finished close behind with a time of 6:44.67

Both of the Crimson’s two second freshmen fours easily defeated Brown, with the ‘A’ boat posting a time of 7:46.46 and the ‘B’ boat finishing close behind in 7:51.53. Brown completed the course in 8:16.44.

Harvard races again next week for the Compton Cup against Princeton and MIT on the Charles.

“We feel like we haven’t had a race that’s indicative of how fast we can be,” Medioli said. “We have had good races but even those we thought we could be a lot better, given our strength and how well our practices have gone.”

—Staff writer Lucy D. Chen can be reached at lucychen@fas.harvard.edu.