Harvard qualified for the Grand Final after winning its preliminary heat on Friday, beating runner-up Georgetown by two and a half seconds. The boats had to restart the heat after Penn suffered mechanical difficulty, but the false start may have served to ease tension for the Crimson rowers.

“That kind of got some jitters out of people in our boat,” Blannin said.

This was the first year that the Harvard heavyweights competed in IRAs since the regatta began deciding the national champion in 1995. Due to impending thunderstorms, Saturday’s races were moved from the afternoon to the morning, creating a setting where the heavyweights won the national title hours before the lightweights even raced.

“[The time after the heavyweight final] was like the best hour of my life,” Tisch said. “I definitely made a call for a dual championship during the race which really got the boat going.”

The heavyweights’ presence also promoted a strong atmosphere of team spirit.

“When we came to about the [300-meter] mark, I could hear this ridiculous roar—it was so different from before,” junior Alex Binkley said. “We’ve always gone down and it’s been us with our one trailer with three boats in it—our boat, a freshman boat and a JV boat—and the girls. To have two trailers of boats and everybody down there...We showed up and everybody else was already there. It gave us something to look forward to, showing up and there actually being a team down there.”

Next up on the Crimson schedule is the Henley Royal Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, England, providing that the boats’ lineup and funding hold. The Harvard lightweights competed in the Temple Cup in 2001, when the crew last won the national title, as per its truly odd streak.

“The first line of the program at Sprints was ‘Odds are, Harvard will win.’ Not results, not seeding, not that anybody could win—because it’s an odd year, Harvard’s in there,” Binkley said. “There’s a jinx if you’ve ever seen one.”

Even or odd year aside, the rowers don’t let the 12-year streak impact their mindset. Although implications do not fall in Harvard’s favor next year, all the varsity rowers aside from Blannin and Tisch will be back.

“Now we just have to break it next year,” Binkley said.

—Staff writer Jessica T. Lee can be reached at lee45@fas.harvard.edu.