The Harvard women's hockey team was not the only national champion team this year.

The men's lightweight crew team got its best race of the year in the most important regatta of the year--the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championships.

With a time of 5:39.7, the Crimson raced to a two-second win over second-place Rutgers.

"We had high hopes for the season," said senior James Lenhart. "It sort of validated the whole year."

That is not to mention that heavily-favored Princeton, previously the No. 1 lightweight crew in the country, finished in a dismal sixth with a time of 5:47.7. Also, Columbia, believed to be Princeton's top challenger, finished in fifth at 5:46.1.

"We stayed at a 40 cadence the whole way," Lenhart said. "Columbia was ahead and we surged on Columbia and broke them. We made another surge at the 1000 meter mark. We were watching them, holding them off through the line."

The Crimson's success is owed to hard work in the weeks before the race.

"We worked very intensely over the three weeks and had a lot more speed," co-captain Tom Fallows said. We tried several different combinations of people in the boat and, more importantly, front-loaded our race to attack the other teams."

The rest of the season set the stage for Harvard, making the Crimson hungry for victory over the Tigers and Lions.