Harvard Continues Mid-Season Success

Halfway into the racing season, the Harvard varsity heavyweights seem to have hit their stride.

Following an exciting 0.5-second win over Princeton last weekend, the varsity eight claimed open water victories over both Navy and Penn to retain the Adams Cup for the ninth consecutive year. The Crimson finished the turn-laden course over three seconds before Navy and almost 15 seconds ahead of Penn.

“For us, it’s good to have another win under our belts,” captain six-seat Joe Medioli said. “Given last weekend against Princeton, we had definitely gotten back a bit of our confidence.”

Coming into the race against the Midshipmen and the Quakers, the varsity eight worked on cleaning up its rowing over the first half of the race, as the Crimson has been forced to come from behind in its previous wins. In addition, Harvard coach Harry Parker switched up the lineup of the varsity eight, bucketing the two and three seats.

“Bucketing the boat can help with the balance, how the boat turns, and even the power between the starboards and the ports,” Medioli said. “We decided to try it on Tuesday and the boat just felt faster, so we stuck with it.”

Indeed, the emphasis on cleaner rowing throughout the week and the lineup change contributed to the boat’s dominant victory this weekend.

“We’ve had to come from behind in our other races, so the race against Navy and Penn was very different from our previous two races,” Medioli said.

Indeed, the varsity eight started the race off well, taking the lead over the rest of the field by the 500-meter mark and never looking back.

“It was a little tough to determine who was leading in the beginning because we were lined up on a stagger at the start,” Medioli said. “But we were ahead of Navy 400-500 meters in.”

After the slight turn near the 700-meter mark, the Crimson had a clear advantage over both the Quakers and Midshipmen that became an open-water lead through the 1000. Harvard held a steady advantage through the rest of the race, holding off a Navy sprint in the last 500 meters. The Crimson crossed the finish line first, clocking in at 5:35.1.

The second varsity boat, which remains undefeated against all competition, also enjoyed an easy win over the field, finishing well ahead of both its competitors.

The crew jumped out to an early lead and only increased its advantage with a strong push through the middle 1000 meters. Harvard completed the course in 5:42.6, followed by Navy in 6:01.3 and Penn in 6:04.1.

“We were happy to get some good racing experience in,” senior bow-seat Breffny Morgan said. “We’re just getting ready for the big one [Eastern Sprints] in three weeks.”

The undefeated freshman eight cruised to an open-water victory, clocking in at 5:43.7. The seven-seat in the freshman Navy crew, which finished second in 5:58.0, suffered an ejector crab with 100 meters to go and the boat was forced to finish the race with only seven rowers.

Next weekend, the Crimson takes on Northeastern at home on the Charles in its last dual race before Eastern Sprints.

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