Harvard, Brown top impressive field
With four of the nation's top-ranked collegiate crews in action on the Charles River, yesterday's races provided an opportunity to flex some muscle. And when the water had settled, it was Harvard and Brown that struck the most impressive poses.
The fifth-ranked Crimson slipped past No. 3 Princeton and MIT while the second-ranked Bears beat back the challenge of No. 7 Northeastern in the heavyweight division.
Harvard's duel with Princeton would qualify as an "instant classic." The visiting Tigers, undefeated entering the race, jumped off the line fast and took a half-length lead over the Crimson in the first 500 meters. MIT, meanwhile, did its best to shadow the two boats.
"I was just pleased that we didn't give any more [of a lead] to Princeton," said Harvard coach Harry Parker. "It would have been big trouble if we had fallen any further behind."
Favorable conditions allowed the crews to be aggressive, and both the Crimson and Tigers settled in at 36 strokes per minute. Harvard drew closer through the middle 1,000 meters, narrowing Princeton's advantage to just a deck and setting up a furious sprint to the finish. MIT had fallen off the pace.
"Both crews did a great job in the last 500 meters," said Parker, whose varsity moved ahead in the waning strokes and then fought off one last Princeton charge. "We were just able to come through with a bit more."
Princeton coach Curtis Jordan admired the Crimson's effort.
"Harvard did a magnificent job of showing grit and persistence, and they stayed on point through the entire race," Jordan said. "For us, though, it was a lesson learned that when you're competing at this caliber, you have to be good the whole way, not just for a while. We lost our edge for a moment in the third 500 meters and that cost us."
Harvard's winning time was 5:40.1 with Princeton even closer than its official time of 5:40.6 indicates. MIT finished in 6:04.0. The win allowed Harvard to retain the Compton Cup and marked its 56th triumph in 72 series meetings.
Brown, meanwhile, earned its third straight win over a Beanpot school, having beaten Boston University two weeks ago and Harvard last Saturday on the Seekonk River. The Bears also took home the Dreissigacker Cup for the third straight year and raised their series lead over Northeastern to 24-20.
The Bears led from start to finish and put a dagger in the Huskies' hopes with a power move at 900 meters that gained open water. It was a two-length lead by the time the crews entered the final sprint, a margin that held the rest of the way with Brown finishing in 5:42.0, ahead of the Huskies' 5:48.9.
"They put us on the defensive from the start and we were never able to move back into them," said Huskies coach John Pojednic. "We had a better effort than last week [a win over Boston University], but there was a huge difference in the speed of the opponent. Brown was every bit as strong as we expected them to be."
On the lightweight side, Dartmouth staged a spectacular comeback to stun Harvard. Trailing the entire race and still behind by seven seats heading into the sprint, the Big Green dashed to the finish line and took the lead with two strokes to go.
"Harvard set a blazing pace that we couldn't match at first," said Dartmouth coach Steve Perry. "But we managed to stay close through the body of the race and finally chased them down at the end." Dartmouth finished in 5:51.8, a fraction ahead of the Crimson (5:51.85), with MIT timed in 6:06.4.
The day's schedule also included the second annual Charles River Challenge, with the BU, NU, and Radcliffe women's crews tangling with a number of out-of-region opponents - Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Texas among them - in races that are continuing throughout the weekend.
"These races provide some strong competition for our local crews and also help give more accurate cross-regional rankings," said Northeastern women's coach Joe Wilhelm, whose varsity was clipped by Notre Dame in a morning contest. "Instead of guessing at the strength of crews from different parts of the country, we're getting a true gauge by going head-to-head against each other."
