Finishing in the top-five in four out of the final five races, Porter moved up 21 points in the standings, a single point out of second.

“I had some rough races in the middle, it was sort of shaky at times,” Porter said. “But I just tried to stay conservative and not any make mistakes.”

Harvard’s third entry, John Mulcahy, finished 15th in the field.

Hoyt Trophy Regatta

This weekend’s Hoyt Trophy Regatta, hosted by Brown on the Providence River, featured two Crimson boats, which combined for fourth place against stiff competition.

Harvard’s ‘A’ boat, with junior skipper Cardwell Potts and sophomore crew David Darst, dominated its division, capturing first by a sizeable margin.

Potts and Darst started slowly in the 18-team competition, taking 13th and 15th in the first two races.

“We were over early at each start—that’s what hurt us,” Potts said.

Three consecutive first-place finishes, however, thrust the duo back into the thick of competition.

“I was just a little bit more conservative and stayed closer to the other competitors at the start,” Potts said. “Just knowing that there were going to be a lot of races, we didn’t let ourselves get down.”

In race eight, the leading Old Dominion boat was disqualified, allowing the Crimson to take firm control of first place within the division and maintain it for the remainder of the competition.

The two sailors completed the last 10 races with nine top-eight finishes, their only hiccough a 17th-place finish in race 12 that proved irrelevant to the outcome.

The Crimson ‘B’ boat, featuring senior skipper Dan Litchfield and crewed first by captain Michelle Yu, then senior Natalie MacLeon, did not fare as well as its ‘A’ division counterparts.

Like Potts and Darst, Litchfield and Yu started slowly, but their turnaround was less timely and decisive.

The Crimson sailors placed in the top-ten for all but three of the last 13 races, but the trio was unable to overcome the deficit which had developed over the course of the early races, and ultimately placed eighth in its division.