BRIEF: Men's Lightweight Crew Competes At Princeton Chase

This past weekend, the Harvard men’s lightweight crew team traveled to Lake Carnegie, in Princeton, N.J., to compete in the annual Princeton Chase regatta. Taking place over the course of two and three-quarter miles, the Crimson entered boats in the varsity eight race, the varsity four race, and the freshmen four race.

Throughout the regatta, every member of the lightweight team participated in one of the races.

Harvard’s first boat raced by the competition for first place in the varsity four race with a time of 14:54.27, almost 10 seconds quicker than second-place Penn. The Crimson’s second and third boats came in 10th and 11th, respectively, with two seconds separating the two.

“This weekend showed that we’ve made a ton of progress over the last few weeks,” sophomore Chris Jarrett said.

Harvard’s fourth boat finished 24th, and its fifth boat at 26th.

In the varsity eight race, Harvard’s first boat claimed fourth place with 13:19.01, edging the Navy’s first boat out by just half a second. Cornell took first, with Penn and Yale coming in the second and third spots, respectively.

“Billy Boyce, our new head coach, has been working us harder and developing us more than ever and we’re really starting to see the fruits of that labor. We’re coming off the water a little bit faster every day and after a few years of disappointing showings the team is hungry for trophies,” Jarrett said.

Harvard’s second boat came in 12th with a time of 13:39.17, and its third boat took 16th at 13:44.34. The final boat came in 22nd with 14:16.49.

“Our second, third, and fourth varsity 8s all performed better than expected,” Jarrett said.

The all-freshmen race gave the Crimson’s freshmen some good experience on the river as the fall season comes to a close. While Berkeley, Princeton, and Dartmouth claimed the top three spots, Harvard’s first boat came in seventh of 21 with 14:10.31.

The final race of the season is the Foot of the Charles on Nov. 13, after which the team will begin preparing for the spring season.

“Princeton Chase was our last race against competition we’ll face next semester,” Jarrett said. “So, right now we’re just focused on getting in a productive training season so we can give it a good rip come spring.”

—Staff writer Jamie Chen can be reached at jamiechen@college.harvard.edu.