Three weeks removed from a victory over then-No. 1 Navy, the No. 1 Harvard varsity lightweights have found that it is anything but lonely at the top.

They’ve kept close company in dual races all season long, and a deep Eastern Sprints field is sure to guarantee them of quite a bit more contact with opposing crews.

“[As No. 1], you do have that target on your back,” said senior second varsity six-seat Nate Rogers. “The other teams are going to try to put together the fastest race that they’ve had all year. There are no more rehearsals for this one.”

And after thrilling come-from-behind victories over Yale and Princeton last weekend, the Crimson enters this weekend’s EARC Sprints Championships with two tested No. 1 rankings.

Tested, they’ve been. But defeated? Not recently.

“We’ve never been very focused on the polls,” said senior varsity three-seat Griffin Schroeder. “We don’t put [them] up in our locker room. When we weren’t number one, we still believed we were the fastest crew. Now we are number one, [and] we think we are the fastest crew.”

Rankings aside, the Crimson boats dominated the dual season—and every crew that came in behind them knows it.

“We’re going in knowing that a lot of people are out to gun us down,” said junior second varsity four-seat Chip Schellhorn. “That makes it a bit more of a challenge, but hopefully it will be something that will make us race even better. We’re using that as fuel.”

Harvard has had unparalleled success in the dual season, with the first varsity finishing at 10-1 and the second varsity a perfect 10-0. The team enjoyed its first Haines Cup victory over Navy since 2001, won a third-consecutive Goldthwait Cup over Yale and Princeton, and defeated Dartmouth and MIT for Harvard’s ninth Biglin Bowl trophy in 10 years.

But historically close Sprints finals and the parity amongst the top EARC crews make Sunday’s finishes anything but inevitable.

In the last six years, four different varsity crews have captured Sprints titles—consistency has yielded to the unpredictability of six boats lining up in a six-minute race to first place.

“There are seven or eight boats who could win Sprints,” said senior first varsity seven-seat Mike Kummer. “It’s a really tight race at the front of the field.”

“Yeah, we are No. 1,” added junior second varsity five-seat Alex Phillips. “But that doesn’t make it any easier or harder. We’re going to have tough races all around.”

The Crimson can expect another tough challenge from the Midshipmen, whose first varsity claimed the Sprints and IRA national titles last spring. In last year’s Sprints race, the No. 1 Navy varsity bested No. 2 Harvard by just over two seconds, ruining Harvard’s try for its first sprints title since 1997.

Both Navy varsity boats enter the weekend No. 2 to Harvard’s No. 1, their only losses coming to the Crimson in an Apr. 23 dual race. The Crimson first varsity must also contend with a Georgetown crew responsible for Harvard’s only defeat of the season, a 1.5 second loss in the opening weekend of dual competition.