If you went out to the Charles River this weekend, you experienced some of the best weather you'll see at Harvard for a long time.
You also saw the Harvard men's heavyweight and lightweight crews going head to head against some of the world's best competition.
Among those was the United States National Team who finished first last year and whom the entire field would be chasing from the start.
Seeded second and among the best, the Harvard heavyweight crew, finished a respectable seventh out of 45 teams in the Champs Eight race with a time of 14:39.86.
The lightweight crew finished sixth out of 29 teams in the Lightweights Eight, with a time of 15:13.30.
After finishing second last year, the Crimson heavyweights entered this year's Head of the Charles with high expectations but with reservations about their youth.
"We have a good team, but I really didn't know what to expect; we have a really new squad," said heavyweight Nathaniel Jones. "You just have to go out there and go as hard as you can."
The race began with Harvard starting second in a staggered start, only behind the U.S. National Team.
The Crimson jumped out to about a 33 stroke-per-minute base and maintained its place in the stagger throughout.
The enthusiastic crowd cheered loudly as the Harvard heavies passed the Weld Boat House and the Crimson looked strong as it followed behind the National Team.
However, the five teams behind Harvard, including Princeton and Yale, were all on the move as well, and they slowly but consistently made up time on Harvard.
In the end the Crimson was unable to hold off the charging boats and had to settle for the seventh spot.
"We're somewhat disappointed; we started second so we wanted to do well," said heavy weight crew member Daniel Dias.
"We did make up some time on Yale from last week, but there is still a lot of work to be done before the spring," he said.
The heavyweights can take solace in that this is only the fall season. The more crucial races begin next semester.
"Right now we're just trying to improve every week," heavyweight Jeff Castellano said. "It's only the off season so we're just working on our aerobic endurance and putting everything together."
"We stayed tough throughout and had a pretty good first mile, so I think we did okay," he added. "We just need to keep working hard and build from this."
Harvard's lightweight team, traditionally weaker in the fall than in the spring, entered the race searching for respectability and certainly succeeded in that end.
Off the starting line, the Crimson jumped out to a fast 38 strokes-per-minute pace and was able to maintain a steady 34-stroke pace throughout.
Beginning behind the New York Athletic Club, the Lightweights immediately began gaining ground on them and moving up the field.
By the end of the race, the Harvard Lightweights finished three and a half seconds ahead of NYAC and had secured a sixth place finish, only three seconds behind fifth-place Yale.
"We've been working really hard to be competitive in the fall, and today we were able to go out and be real aggressive," senior lightweight Tom Fallows said. "We still have some technical stuff to polish up on for next weekend at Princeton, but in general I was happy with our performance today."
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