Erase those five feet 20 days ago and No. 2 Harvard, not No. 1 Navy, is the consensus pick as the nation’s top lightweight crew headed into Sunday’s EARC Sprints on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.

Up more than a length with just 700 meters to go, the Crimson allowed its lead to slip away in the face of a Midshipmen challenge, punctuated by a spirit-breaking sprint that snatched away the victory.

But rather than allow the heartbreaking loss to torpedo an otherwise perfect season, Harvard has spent the past three weeks contextualizing its setback and reevaluating its relative strengths and weaknesses. After all, the Crimson’s training program is geared towards championship-season titles—dual wins are a nice supplement, but amount to little more than glorified trial runs.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work that is geared towards making the overall race stronger,” said senior coxswain Dave Kang. “We’re able to carry on a few concepts of execution over a longer and longer distance.”

Those few concepts have centered on maintaining both composure and a strong base cadence as the race wears on, while honing sprint skills which proved insufficient to hold off Navy.

“In rowing you have to get the blade to the water and the objective is just to get it to happen,” Harvard coach Charlie Butt said. “And you can’t press in advance of that. The challenge is to stay efficient when the pressure is on.”

And while the Crimson failed in that regard against the Midshipmen—falling apart during Navy’s second late charge—Harvard showed marked improvement just a week later against No. 4 Yale when the Bulldogs attempted to pull off a similar maneuver.

Much of the responsibility for ensuring that the rowers remain focused on their own rhythm apart and not a speeding opponent falls on Kang’s shoulders.

According to Kang, keeping his oarsmen’s minds on “the meat and potatoes” means removing all other considerations to simplify the row, creating an atmosphere similar to that during the first 1,000 meters over which the Crimson has been dominant all season long.

“The idea is to just keep everything very straight forward,” Kang said. “It was against Navy in particular when things slowed down in the last half of the race. [We’ve got to] not to try to pull any tricks out of the bag or anything.”

That approach worked like a charm against Yale, who along with the Midshipmen and No. 3 Cornell should prove Harvard’s stiffest competition. The Crimson not only rebuffed the Bulldogs’s advance, but gained a pair of seats in the process.

Supplementing Kang’s call was a lineup shuffle implemented before the race which will remain in place for Sunday’s regatta.

Junior Pat Haas, who stroked for the varsity eight when it captured the national championship in 2003, returned to his former position, swapping with classmate Nate Rogers, who now fills the six seat.

“I’m not sure that in raw terms we’re faster,” Butt said. “But I think in terms of comfort, Haas is a more experienced stroke man than Rogers and each stroke man is relaxing more.”

But will those two improvements be enough to oust Navy and maintain the edge over Yale and Cornell?

“Absolutely,” Kang said.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.