On June 10, Harvard won the 135th Harvard-Yale race in convincing fashion, covering the 4 mile course in 19:44, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Yale. The win avenges Harvard's loss last year, and brings the series total to 82 for Harvard vs. 53 for Yale. Harvard has won 32 of 38 races since Harry Parker took the varsity reins.

In the varsity race, Harvard led from the outset and had a few seats by the half-mile mark. After moving slowly out on Yale, they led by a half-length by a mile and a half, battling rough water and a strong crosswind. Yale made a push back into Harvard at this point, drawing within a few seats. But Harvard was able to hold off the move, and steadily drew away, winning by two lengths of open water.

Harvard also won the junior varsity race, but lost the freshman race. More details will follow.

Harvard took fourth across the board at Eastern Sprints on May 21, but that storyline doesn't tell the whole story. The three Crimson crews finished out of the medals by a collective four tenths of a seconds, and all were charging to the finish.

In the varsity race, the Crimson were clipped by Wisconsin by .38 seconds, or about a seat. Princeton finished 2nd, a half-length up on Harvard, and Brown won in 5:43.18, about a length ahead of Harvard's 5:46.59. Dartmouth and Northeastern rounded out the grand final, two lengths off of Harvard's pace.

The JV also narrowly missed bronze, placing 4th in 5:57.35, just five hundredths of a seconds behind Wisconsin. Brown won in 5:51.99, with Princeton second in 5:54.93. And the freshman finished in 6:04.81, just a hundredth of a second behind Brown for 3rd, and less than a second (about 2 1/2 seats) behind Princeton for the silver. Wisconsin won in 6:00.50.

Looking ahead to early June and the Harvard-Yale race: None of Yale's crews competed in the Grand Final. The Varsity finished 2nd in the petites in 5:51.63 after finishing fourth in their morning heat. Yale's JV won the petite final in 6:07.31. The freshman finished fourth in the petites in 6:11.28. The Crimson will be looking to avenge last year's loss in the Varsity race, and while Sprints results are often a poor predictor of performance on the Thames, the Crimson have to go into the Race as favorites.

On a slightly strange note, the Crimson did walk away from Lake Quinsigamond as winners. After the cancellation of the Adams Cup racing two weeks prior to Sprints, it was decided to award the Cup to the highest placing crew at Sprints. Neither Penn nor Navy made the Grand Final, so Harvard was awarded the Cup.

Once again WNLC radio in New London will be broadcasting the Harvard Yale regatta live on Saturday 6/10/2001. In addition to being live on the radio at 98.7 FM, WNLC will also stream the audio over the web. You can reach the webcast through WNLC's website at www.wnlc.com.

The latest EARC and USRowing polls continue to show Harvard in a strong position, as dual race resultsc continue to show the Crimson's improving speed.

In the EARC poll, the Varsity is still ranked 2nd behind Brown, the only EARC school to defeate the Crimson this year. Princeton, Wisconsin, Penn, and Dartmouth round out the top six. The JV is currently ranked fourth behind Brown, Wisconsin, and Princeton. Cornell is fifth, with Northeastern and Yale level for the sixth spot. Harvard's third varisty is top-ranked, with Cornell, Wisconsin, and Princeton looking up at them.

On the freshman side of things, the Crimson are ranked third. Brown holds the top rank, with Princeton second. Wisconsin, Syracuse, and Yale complete the top six. Harvard's second freshman are top-ranked, ahead of Cornell and Wisconsin.

In the national scene, USRowing's nationwide poll of men's eights showed some movement this week, as Harvard pulled level with Washington for third spot in the poll. Cal and Brown continue to be one-two in the poll. The remainder of the top ten include Princeton, Wisconsin, Penn, Dartmouth, Northeastern, and Navy.

In the Charlie Smith Cup, the annual test of Charles River dominance, unusually fast conditions set the stage for a record-breaking Harvard win. Harvard swept the varsity, JV, and freshman races in a direct tailwind of 15+ mph and medium to heavy chop.

The varsity race clocked Harvard in 5:37.3, 3.6 seconds in front of Northeastern and a new Charles River record for Heavyweight men. The JV also had success, crossing the line in a speedy 5:47.8, 2 seconds ahead of Northeastern, with Harvard's 3V third. The freshmen won by 6 seconds in 5:51.3. A combination of Northeastern's 3V and 2F registered their lone win, ahead of Harvard's fourth varsity and second freshman boats.

With heavy rain and gusty, 20-30 mph winds, Saturday's Compton Cup was a bit out of the ordinary. The poor conditions forced the crews out of the Basin and into the Powerhouse stretch, as the races were run single-file from the BU Bridge to Weeks Footbridge, about 1850-1900 meters. Northeastern, who was meant to race Brown in the Dreissigacker Cup, unofficially joined the racing, as the poor weather kept Brown in Providence for the day. That race will be made up next weekend.

Harvard won the varsity race in 5:28.9, 2.9 seconds ahead of Princeton. Northeastern clocked a 5:34.6, and MIT finished in 6:06.9. In the junior varsity race, Harvard and Princeton tied in 5:40.8. Northeastern was 7.5 seconds back. Harvard and Princeton also tied in the freshmen race in 5:50.1, eleven seconds in front of Northeastern. Harvard won the third varsity race by 2 seconds in 5:59.

The win is an important one for the Crimson as a milestone for their improvement throughout the season, and sets them up for their visit to Annapolis next week for the Adams Cup. The article below is from Sunday's Boston Globe

By Bob Monahan, Globe Staff, 4/23/2001

Seneca wrote, ''The pilot ... who has been able to say, `Neptune, you shall never sink this ship except on an even keel,' has fullfilled the requirement of his art.''

The Roman philosopher and writer of tragedies should have been covering crew on the choppy, chilly, rainswept Charles River yesterday morning. Seneca, who also gets credit for ''What fools these mortals be,'' would have had a belly laugh as college crews defied the elements and Neptune.

But the pilots - called coxswains these days - did their jobs well as lads and lasses shrugged off the weather and rowed their fragile shells almost as scheduled. The oarsmen, oarswomen, and coxswains had an ''on-with-the-show'' attitude that certainly deserved plaudits. Their rewards should be everlasting warm showers.

The crews' coaches - after numerous hours of deliberation Friday - had three game plans for yesterday's forecast:

Plan A: Row the traditional 2,000-meter course from the Charles River basin to the Boston University Boathouse.

Plan B: Start the races 500 meters lower in the basin and end the 2,000-meter test at the MIT Boathouse.

Plan C: Start at the BU Bridge and race against the clock in single file - Head of the Charles style - and finish at Weeks Bridge, across from Harvard Business School.

Plan C won out and the rowers raced on a 1,850-meter course. The water and wind gods did their best to discourage competition, but the mortals prevailed.

The results:

1. The Harvard men, who lost by two seconds last week at Brown by half a boat length, defeated Eastern Sprints champion Princeton and MIT to capture the Compton Cup. The Crimson posted a time of 5 minutes 28.9 seconds with Princeton second in 5:31.8. Northeastern, an unofficial entry, posted a 5:34.6, while MIT was clocked in 6:09.9.

2. Brown, the dominant crew in the East with a 3-0 record, did not show show up for its race with Northeastern because of the threat of bad weather. Thus, the Huskies were invited into the Compton Cup field.

3. The Radcliffe women won the first O'Leary Cup in 6:19.3 over third-ranked California (6:22.4), Syracuse (6:30.7), and Dartmouth (3:37.5). ''This race tells us a lot,'' said Harvard coach Harry Parker. ''I feel we got faster and that's our goal.''

Harvard has only two seniors back from last year's boat. Four oarsmen are up from Bill Manning's undefeated freshman crew of a year ago.

''A good race,'' said Parker. ''The guys did well. Our goal is to get faster as the season goes on and we seem to be on course. I didn't see much of the race but I feel our guys rowed well. Also, I think the format we used was the right thing to do under the conditions we had.''

Princeton coach Curtis Jordan is on leave coaching Olympians in San Diego. His replacement, New Zealander Chris Nilsson, who wasn't crazy about the format, said, ''We came here with a 3-0 record and we're going pretty well. We have only two oarsmen back from last year but that hasn't been a problem. We're not as big as last year but we can be fast.''

Northeastern coach Buzz Congram understood his opponents staying home.

''We'll row against Brown next weekend,'' he said. ''For them to row today they'd have to get up at 4 a.m. We'll get it in.

''I'm happy with our time and the new format was the right thing to do. I have a better feeling about our crew. I think we're faster.''

MIT coach Gordon Hamilton was against Plan C from the start.

''We row under these conditions 40 percent of the time,'' he said. ''We could have rowed the normal race. It was [Parker's] choice.''

Harvard was the host school and Parker, who is in his 40th year at the school, selected the less dangerous course.

''This is the first time such a format was used as far as I know,'' he said. ''We talked about this a few years ago for a regatta, but the weather improved. We started at one-minute intervals.''

In another race, the Northeastern women posted a 6:29.1 to humble Navy (6:44.0) and Columbia (6:48.2).

''This victory ups our overall record to 9-1 and sets up a really interesting contest next weekend when we face BU Saturday and Radcliffe Sunday,'' said Huskies coach Joe Wilhelm. ''This could give us an opportunity to crack into the top 10 in the nation.''

This story ran on page E14 of the Boston Globe on 4/23/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

On Providence's Seekonk River, Harvard dropped a close race to Brown's varsity eight. In a ten mph headwind with light chop, Brown covered the course in 5:52.3, 2 seconds ahead of Harvard. As Brown is currently rated the top East Coast school, this close race promises tough racing throughout the spring and should indicate a tight challenge at Sprints as Harvard looks to get back at the Bears.

Brown also won the JV and freshman races, taking the JV race by just under 3 seconds and the frosh race by 5.8 seconds. Harvard won the third varsity and second freshman races by open water.

Next week, Harvard returns to the Charles to battle Princeton and MIT for the Compton Cup. This week, Princeton defeated Penn, Columbia, and Temple to win the Childs Cup. The varsity race will start at 7:30 AM.

In USRowing's April 12 poll of 16 varsity coaches, Harvard was ranked 5th nationwide in varsity eights. California is ranked first, getting 12 of the 16 first-place votes, with 2nd place Brown picking up the other 4. Washington and Princeton were 3rd and 4th. The top 13 places were unchanged from the previous week.

Wisconsin, Penn, Temple, Yale, and Northeastern round out the top ten.

With only San Diego, very early in the season for the East Coast schools, to measure the crews, these rankings don't say much. Head to head racing on the East Coast over the next few weekends should start to show which crews are fast this year.

Harvard put forth a strong early-season showing this weekend at the San Diego Crew Classic, finishing 3rd in a strong field that included Washington, Cal, Penn, Yale, and Wisconsin.

After finishing second to Washington in the heat, Harvard was drawn in lane four for a final that included Cal, Washington, Penn, Temple, and Wisconsin. Cal led start-to-finish, with Washington second all the way. Cal's strong 2nd 500 gave them a 4 second lead at the midway point. Harvard, 4th through the first 500 (3 seconds behind Washington), rowed a strong body of the race to pass Wisconsin for third and prevent Washington from moving.

California were the eventual winners in 5:44.2, with Washington at 5:48.5. Harvard clocked a 5:52.1, open water ahead of Wisconsin (5:57.1) and Penn (5:57.3). Temple crossed in 6:00.2. The result has to be seen as encouraging, and certainly puts Harvard in a good position against their East Coast rivals (Yale and Columbia also competed, taking first and third respectively in the petite finals).

The junior varsity finished 5th in the grand final in a time of 6:03.9. Washington won in 5:56.1, with Wisconsin second, 4.3 seconds behind. Cal was third in 6:01.5, Yale fourth in 6:03.0, with Harvard at 6:03.9. Penn trailed with a 6:20.9.