The Harvard freshman boat drew the University of Bristol in the first round of competition. The Crimson won by two and a quarter lengths and earned the right to race on the following day.

“We had five races in five days,” Webb said. “There were no second chances. We had to use more tactics in this regatta [than in other regattas]. We had to be able to win convincingly, yet conserve for the next race.”

Harvard’s strategy proved to be successful as the Crimson triumphed over the Isis Boat Club by a length and a quarter and then sent the University of Ireland back to Galway, Ireland without a cup.

“It’s fun to have a single elimination tournament,” Lehe said. “It spices things up.”

The Harvard freshman crew had advanced to the semifinals, where it confronted the Yale junior varsity lightweight crew, one of several boats that Yale sent to Henley in the year of its tercentennial. The Crimson pulled off a time of 6:27 to garner the victory over the Elis by a length and a quarter.

With the win, Harvard expected a difficult race in the final on Sunday, July 8, against Oxford Brookes University, a premier English crew and holder of the Temple Challenge Cup course record with its winning time of 6:14 in 1995.

“Some of the biggest expectations were in our event,” Lehe said. “Throughout the first four days, [Harvard and Brookes] were matching performances over all these [other] teams. Each day, the team we raced was harder and harder. We were trying to estimate how much energy they were conserving. We were looking at margins and times every day and comparing them to ours.”