It was 8:05 a.m. on Saturday morning, but the Navy varsity lightweights were done for the day. Their No. 1 national ranking had fallen just two hours after sunrise, before anybody was even awake to know about it.

Except, of course, for the celebratory Harvard crews on a cool-down row back to Newell Boathouse.

Paced by a blistering second 1,000 meters, the Harvard first varsity lightweights broke free from an early back-and-forth battle with the Midshipmen and sprinted to a near five-second victory.

The second varsity race was no less dramatic, with the Crimson overcoming a near-boat-length deficit to overtake the Navy crew with less than 500 meters to go. At the finish, Harvard held a commanding three-quarters boat lead.

Both Navy varsity boats entered the weekend ranked No. 1 in the U.S. Rowing national poll. The two Harvard varsity crews trailed them at No. 2.

But there would be little trailing on Saturday—and none at the finish line for the Crimson varsity.

“It was a good day for the Harvard varsity,” said senior first varsity seven-seat Michael Kummer. “[Navy] has a really fast program. It was great for Newell Boathouse to have the showing that it did.”

The two varsity wins were enough to ensure the squad of its first Haines Cup victory since 2001, when Harvard won the national title. The last time the Crimson claimed the Haines Cup, Harvard’s seniors were still in high school. Only one Harvard boat—the second varsity in 2004—had beaten Navy in a dual race in four years.

It had been a long time coming, and Harvard made sure to add a little open-water exclamation point to an already emphatic victory.

After Navy took a quick jump off of the start, the Crimson varsity found itself a few seats back on the country’s No. 1 crew. But Harvard again proved that the first 300 meters of the race have very little to do with the final 1,700.

“Both boats came out really hard off the start,” junior two-seat Wes Kauble said. “We both settled to pretty sustainable rhythms and from there our boat just concentrated on putting as much power as possible into every stroke.”

By 500 meters down, the two boats were locked in a near stalemate. Harvard’s surge after the start had matched it seat-for-seat with Navy, and neither boat seemed posed to make a strong move into the 1,000-meter mark.

Then both boats disappeared underneath the Mass Ave. bridge at the halfway point. For a few precious seconds, neither crew could see the opposition.

And once out from under the bridge, Harvard kept it that way.

The Crimson buried the Midshipmen in the second half of the race, with a gradual surge starting at 1,200 meters down that put the Harvard boat on the Navy bow ball with about 500 meters remaining.