Men's Heavyweights Win 16th Straight Smith Cup

It was sweet number 16 for the No. 2 Harvard heavyweight men’s crew as the Crimson bested both No. 4 Northeastern and Holy Cross in all five races on Saturday on the Charles River. The victory earned Harvard’s 16th straight Smith Cup in the annual regatta between the cross-town rivals.

The first varsity boat remained undefeated over its spring contests as the eight grabbed yet another win. The first 1,000 meters were knotted for Harvard and the Huskies, but the Crimson opened a significant lead by the 1,500-meter mark and took the Smith Cup with open water. Harvard won the race by almost four seconds, 5.30.8 to 5:34.2.

“We’ve been working all season on improving in the middle of our race,” said captain James O’Connor, who rows in the two-seat. “Coming into this one we knew Northeastern was going to be similarly fast on the line. We realized this was the time to shine, if you will, and we really needed to get our middle together and turn out victorious.”

The varsity eight, coxed by senior David Fuller, with senior Parker Washburn at stroke and sophomore James Medway at the bow, has swept all six sprint races this spring and found its only misstep this year at the Head of the Charles in October, when the boat was clipped by last year’s national champion, the University of Washington.

“They’re essentially different seasons—the sprint season and the championship season,” O’Connor said. “We know that we’ve come out on top, which means we have really good boat speed and the potential to win.”

Saturday’s races concluded the season on the Charles for the Crimson, as the squad will resume competition at the EARC Sprints in two weeks and head to IRA Nationals a week later.

“The attitude right now towards Sprints is primarily to work to balance the academic priorities and the specific desire to go fast and win the championship,” Harvard freshman coach Bill Manning said. “It’s a challenging period for everybody and these guys want to do both well.”

The first boats on the water were the fifth varsity fours. While the Harvard ‘A’ boat won outright in 6:54.8, Crimson teammates in the ‘C’ and ‘B’ boats were not far behind, taking second and third, respectively.

After catching a crab at the 800-meter mark and falling out of winning contention, the Holy Cross boat finished last in 7:30.0, 20 seconds behind Harvard’s ‘B’ boat.

The fourth varsity four race also saw the Crimson establish a sizeable lead over its opponents, with the ‘B’ boat capturing first place in 6:38.6 and the ‘A’ boat taking second seven seconds later. Northeastern rounded out the trio of boats finishing nearly eight seconds after the final Harvard boat.

“The Harvard students did a good job on the day,” Manning said. “We’re fortunate that we have good competition within the squad both at the top and elsewhere. I think the Harvard crews are really set upon racing each other and trying to prove that they’re the stronger half of the program.”

The slimmest margin of victory came in the third varsity eight race, as the Crimson’s first freshman boat battled through catching a crab late in the final 15 strokes to edge the Huskies by just over a second, 5:48.2 to 5:49.8. Moderately choppy conditions in the second 1000 meters proved challenging, yet did not slip up the novices.

“They had established a significant lead prior to that so that when they had that bobble it was not possible that the other team could overtake them,” Manning said. “They had established a big enough lead and they recovered well from it.”

Victory came a bit easier for the second varsity boat. While Harvard and Northeastern stayed close to one another for the first 1000 meters, as the Crimson came out from under the Harvard Bridge, the boat began to gain on its opponent and won with a lead of nearly a whole boat length.

—Staff writer Cordelia F. Mendez can be reached at cordeliamendez@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonCordelia.