It was the year they were supposed to be vulnerable, but the Harvard heavyweights were invincible again. The Crimson varsity took home its third straight national title on Saturday afternoon, defeating Princeton for the third time this year with a 1.3-second victory at IRAs.

This time around, Harvard had every reason to have a mediocre year: the top two varsity boats lost 13 oarsmen from 2004, only two people remained from the dominant varsity boat from the year before, and Princeton, Washington, or Cal looked poised to take Harvard’s place at the IRA winner’s dock.

Mediocrity, however, seems to have no place in Newell Boathouse. The young varsity crew, anchored by three-time national title winners Aaron Holzapfel and Malcolm Howard, finished off 2005 with an undefeated dual season, a third consecutive Eastern Sprints title, and yet another gold medal at IRAs.

“[Coach Harry Parker] told us that we’ve beaten Princeton before,” said senior seven-seat Malcolm Howard, “and that we could do it again if we had a good race.”

The Crimson wasted no time asserting its longstanding dominance over Princeton, taking down the Tigers in a dramatic semifinal win on Friday.

In that race, Harvard took a one-seat lead from Princeton just after the start.

In the teams’ previous meetings—a dual race at Lake Carnegie and the Eastern Sprints final—Harvard had been unable to take any sort of early lead.

And once they grabbed that seat advantage on Friday, the heavyweights never let it up.

Princeton could make up no ground on the Crimson boat, and Harvard kept up enough pressure to preserve the one-seat lead throughout the course.

The Crimson took the semifinal win in 5:51.77, and Princeton finished at 5:51.96.

“I think the semi discouraged them because we only got a seat in front of them and they didn’t move the whole race,” Howard said. “I think they were worried that if they ever gave anything up, they wouldn’t be able to get it back.”

That performance set the stage for Saturday’s final, where Harvard faced Princeton and unfamiliar West Coast powerhouses Cal and Washington.

“The semi was basically Eastern Sprints and Pac-10s, part two,” sophomore varsity two-seat Andrew Boston said. “We had no idea how fast Cal and Washington were.”

Harvard, Princeton, Cal, and Washington spent the first 500 meters battling for the early advantage.

“We really thought Cal and Princeton were just going to go nuts from the start,” Howard said. “And we were ready for it.”