“Our JV is extremely fast this year,” said first varsity six-seat Dave Stephens. “That bodes really well for the entire program because if the JV’s fast, hopefully the varsity is fast as well.”
As the first varsity warmed up for its race, the second varsity sprinted by at the 1,250 meter mark of its race, maintaining a sizeable open-water advantage over Dartmouth.
“Watching them gives us a lot of confidence going into our race,” Stephens said. “In any other year, the guys in the JV boat would be in the varsity boat.”
The first freshman boat could not replicate the strong start of the first varsity, but a strong performance in the middle of the race gave the Crimson a convincing two-second win over Dartmouth.
After a shaky start, Harvard fell down by four seats through the first 500 meters, outpaced by a strong Dartmouth crew. But the Crimson relied on patience through the 500-meter mark to pull even and then ahead of the Big Green. By 1,500 meters down, the Crimson had made up a length on Dartmouth, going from four seats down to four seats up over the second-place Big Green.
“We went in pretty pumped,” stroke Moritz Hafner said. “We were really pumped because we had a bad race last Sunday and we were going to make up for that.”
The Crimson finished almost a boat length ahead of Dartmouth, using an effective move in the final 500 meters to gain nearly four more seats in the choppy waters of a brisk tailwind. Harvard crossed in a time of 6:05.6, and Dartmouth followed in 6:07.6. Third-place MIT finished in 6:35.9.
Two varsity fours also outpaced Dartmouth, with both finishing several lengths in front of the Big Green.
The sweep and the Biglin Bowl victory is the Crimson’s last tune-up before next week’s showdown with Navy.
“If we are to beat Navy, it’s going to be very close,” Stephens said. “It’s pretty much anybody’s race.”
Last year, Navy bested Harvard for first place in the Eastern Sprints Championships and went on to capture the national crown at the 2004 IRAs.
The Crimson varsity fell to the Midshipmen by 1.1 seconds in last year’s dual race in Annapolis. Navy enters the race having defeated Georgetown by five seconds, the only boat to beat Harvard thus far.
“It’s going to be a fun race,” Kummer said. “It’s going to be a mentally taxing one, and we’re going to make it a physically taxing one. They’re going to present us with a challenge and we’re going to have fun dealing with it.”
—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.