The Harvard varsity heavyweight crew had no trouble extending its dual race winning streak to 20, blitzing the field by almost six boat lengths in Saturday’s Adams Cup victory over Navy and Penn.

After last week’s dethroning of then-No. 1 Princeton, the heavyweights defended their newly minted No. 1 national ranking in dominant fashion.

In the first varsity race, Harvard sat on the outside lane of a staggered start, already at a few seats advantage over the Penn and Navy crews occupying inside lanes.

And after the start, it became all too clear that the Crimson would never trail.

“We had a really strong start, which was good news for us,” said sophomore varsity two-seat Andrew Boston. “We came off the line really fast.”

Navy did manage, however, to keep close to the Harvard boat in the race’s opening strokes.

But with 750 meters gone, Harvard had already buried the Midshipmen and third-place Penn.

“We took a strong move at the 400-meter mark,” Boston said, “and we continued breaking away for the rest of the race.”

The dominant start gave the Crimson its early advantage, and the crew’s strong base cadence throughout the heart of the course added several boat lengths to the Harvard lead. Harvard plowed through the course in relative isolation, with both Penn and Navy locked in a battle for second place.

“The body of the race proved that we have a whole lot of power and can move the boat really well,” sophomore and varsity bow Nick Baker said.

Toward the end of the race, the Crimson suffered a slight slip-up—one over which neither Penn nor Navy had any control.

Near the 300-meter mark, having already annihilated the morning’s competition, the Crimson got a little violent with the water as well.

Baker’s bow oar smacked an idle goose in the Schuylkill River just before the finish line. The move both startled the goose and the Crimson boat, which experienced a significant lurch shortly after contact.

“My oar just sort of stopped mid-motion on the recovery,” Baker said, “and I thought I might have caught a crab. Then I realized my oar wasn’t stuck, but there was a goose kicking and flapping around in the water.”

Boston was less descriptive.