Men's Heavyweight Crew Captures Adams Cup

With the end of the regular season approaching, the Harvard men’s crew teams were on the road this weekend, with the heavyweight team racing against Navy and Penn, and the lightweight team taking on Ivy League rivals Princeton and Yale. Overall, the heavyweight team brought home two trophies, while the lightweights fell to their opponents.

The No. 5 heavyweight team captured the Adams Cup for the 17th straight year in its penultimate regular season race with wins over No. 11 Navy and No. 8 Penn in Annapolis, Md. The Crimson dominated, sweeping all five events.

The varsity eight boat, led by senior coxswain Jessi Izhakoff and junior stroke James Croxford, had a narrow win, finishing with a time of 6:02.24, just three feet and 0.61 seconds ahead of the Midshipmen. Penn finished just under 10 seconds behind with a time of 6:11.94.

“I was expecting a tough race,” senior rower Charles Risbey said. “Overall the team performed well. It's always extremely exciting for all of our boats to win, especially when we are racing against two deep and experienced teams.”

The second eight also had a close win, besting the Quakers by just over a second. Harvard finished at 6:07.53, Penn at 6:08.89, and Navy at 6:11.59. The third and fourth varsity teams recorded close wins as well. The 3V boat finished two seconds ahead of the Navy boat, and the 4V boat finished just a little over a second ahead of the Mids.

The freshman boat had the only open water win, finishing eight seconds ahead of Penn, the nearest boat. The boat crossed the finish line at 6:08.09, with Penn at 6:16.24, and Navy at 6:16.84.

The heavyweight team was also awarded another prize: the Clothier Trophy, which is given to the team with the most points after each of the five races.

“It is clear that there are are many very fast and capable crews in the league this year,” Risbey said. “My take away is that if we are going to be as successful as previous years, we will need to continue improving to make sure that we close the gap to Princeton and the other top crews.”

A few hundred miles away, the No. 4 lightweight team wrapped up its regular season on the Housatonic River in Derby, Conn. It dropped races against Ancient Eight rivals No. 3 Princeton and No. 6 Yale.

The second varsity boat, coxed by senior Alexander Spencer and stroked by senior Connor Mangan, had the only victory of the day. The team finished in 5:40.91 and won by three seconds over the Bulldogs, who finished at 5:43.79.

The V8 team also had a close race but was off the mark by the same margin by which the JV team won. Princeton took home the Goldthwait Cup, awarded to the winner, finishing in 5:36.26. Yale was two seconds behind, and Harvard came in at 5:39.96.

“My boat went out there today and left it all on the course,” freshman lightweight Liam Daily said. “We followed our plan and started off hard, then kept pushing the gas down all the way through the finish. I'm proud of every single guy in the boat, and it's a privilege to get to row with them.”

The third and fourth varsity boats both came in second place. The 3V team was behind Princeton by one second, and ahead of Yale by two. The 4V boat lost to the Tigers by five seconds.

“Going forward, we know that we can make the boat fly,” Daily said.  “I thought the races today were the most exciting races so far this season, and now we have confidence that we can row with some of the fastest crews out there. Confidence is huge, and now we have one more reason to get out on the water and get faster every day.”

—Staff writer Katherine H. Scott can be reached at katherinescott@college.harvard.edu.