Harvard Men’s Lightweights Complete Sweep of Dartmouth

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — The Harvard men’s lightweight crew team continued its season on Saturday with a dominant sweep of Dartmouth to claim the Biglin Bowl. This marks the fourth consecutive year that the Crimson secured the Bowl over Dartmouth.

Harvard began the day with two four-man boats racing against Dartmouth in the 3V race. Due to the shortage of rowers, the race had a slightly unusual format.

“Dartmouth only had enough athletes for one four, so we broke our 3V eight into two fours,” explained the Crimson’s Head Coach, Billy Boyce.

The race was not particularly clean for Harvard, but it was still able to come out with a win.

“It was a messy race, especially for us. We caught two crabs,” said Boyce. “We managed to claw our way back into it and got in front at the end.”

The V4 A ultimately earned a win for the Crimson with a time of 7:17.34, just over two seconds faster than the Big Green’s boat. The 4B finished well over a minute slower than the Dartmouth boat.

This race marked the first win for the rowers on the 3V boat, as the crew lost to Penn in Ithaca, N.Y., last weekend at the Franklin Cup.

The V8 and 2V continued the competition for the Bowl with two strong races, each beating their Big Green opponents. The V8, coxed by freshman Nathalie Gregg, posted a dominant time of 6:08.138. The 2V, coxed by junior Sylvie Spitz, posted a time of 6:17.454.

“They went out, they had a great start and were taking seats on Dartmouth pretty early on,” Boyce said about the V8 race. “They got out to open, and then the margin stayed similar for the last quarter of the race, but they had a pretty comfortable open water lead.”

This week’s results will come as a disappointment for Dartmouth, which had a relatively strong start in its spring season opener at the National Collegiate Lightweight Invitational on March 28. The long break between races seems to have caused some rust for the Big Green.

Meanwhile, both of Harvard’s top two boats have had strong starts to the season, continuing the program’s legacy of success. The wins this week keep the Crimson’s momentum going after victories last week at the Franklin Cup.

“Good to get some early wins, as long as the guys don’t get complacent and make sure that they keep looking forward and keep looking for more speed, fitness, and things like that,” Boyce said.

While Harvard has had an excellent start to the season, the early April races are certainly the least important when looking at the long rowing season as a whole.

“We take a look at past years and the narratives and the lessons that can be learned from an early win that gave a false sense of confidence or an early loss that gave a false sense of hopelessness,” the coach said about keeping his rowers motivated in the early stages of the season.

“I caution them to make sure they keep the narrative of the season in perspective and to recognize that it’s a long season and there can be significant change in results across the season, and that’s within their control,” he added.

Harvard will certainly want to keep this early momentum going as it looks ahead to the potential of winning on the national stage. Last year, the Harvard team was a dominant program on the national level. The team won its second straight IRA title in the first and second varsity eight events. The Crimson went undefeated overall and had one of the most successful seasons in the program’s history. Harvard is striving to earn a three-peat in those events this year, and the Crimson have shown early signs that it can obtain that goal.

Harvard, unfortunately, lost a key part of its title run after last season. Brahm Erdmann — a Crimson Sports Staff Writer and the Crimson’s top rower from its back-to-back run — graduated last season after winning the inaugural IRCA Oarsmen award, which, in the IRCA’s own words, recognizes a “generational talent.”

Despite one major departure from the team, many of Harvard’s top talents have returned to the water this season. The Crimson has three returning 2025 IRCA all-Americans: senior Kyle Sutherland, junior Preston Darling, and captain Ben Lundie. With so many impressive student-athletes, Harvard rowing fans will certainly have high expectations for this season.

The team will continue its 2026 campaign next week, on April 18, as it takes on Navy and MIT in Annapolis, Md., for the Haines Cup.

—Staff writer Asher M. Meron can be reached at [email protected].