Harvard’s varsity heavyweight boat earned a second place finish and received nine Second Team All-Ivy mentions, but the freshman heavyweight crew brought home the Crimson Heavyweights’ 54th Eastern title.

Strong tailwinds on Worcester’s Lake Quinsigamond helped everyone to record-breaking times in all six events of the day, including the first freshman boat’s time of 5:35.98 that broke the course record for freshman crews.

“We started to fulfill the potential we had,” said Justin Webb. “We dictated the pace of the race.”

“We knew we could win if we rowed as well as we have been,” said stroke-seat Kip McDaniel.

“Of course, that’s not easy,” he added.

Harvard’s first freshman boat entered the regatta with the top seed and a record of 7-1-its only loss to Brown on April 14. The Crimson’s winning time broke the freshman course record by five seconds and left second-place Princeton, which finished in 5:40.05, solidly in its wake.

“It was fantastic,” said freshman coach Bill Manning. “They were able to put it together. We had 18 rowers come home with gold medals and it’s great to see it happen with the whole squad.”

The freshman boat consisted of Webb, McDaniel, Will Riffelmacher, Jonathan Lehe, Cameron Winklevoss, Jonathan Durham, Ray Hohenstein, Mark Hall and coxswain Jesse Oberst.