“The 2V wasn’t quite satisfied with their performance,” Eiermann said. “They hoped to do a little better, and I know they have more speed than they showed here.”

Eiermann acknowledged that the boat lineups had been shuffled, as the Harvard coaches are experimenting with different mixes before finalizing their boats for the spring season. He was encouraged by the Crimson’s performance across the board, especially since the 2V and 3V boats rowed well compared to their counterparts from other schools.

“This is definitely kind of a basis from which to work,” Eiermann said. “It shows that the team is very deep.”

After the varsity eight race in the morning, Harvard split up its top two boats and placed them in the varsity four event. The Crimson’s A and B boats flourished, taking second and fifth, respectively, while the C and D came in 14th and 16th.

The A boat barely missed out on a win, finishing just over four tenths of a second behind Princeton—who once again was Harvard’s spoiler—at 14:48.045. The B boat crossed the line at 15:08.470.

The Crimson now looks forward to the Tail of the Charles Regatta on Nov. 21, its final competition before the grueling winter training session begins.

“The spirits are pretty high,” Eiermann said. “We can leave this weekend with our heads held high.”

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

An earlier version of the Oct. 26 sports article "Rookies Dominate Field at Princeton’s Carnegie Chase" incorrectly stated that the Harvard men's lightweight crew's freshman boat came up short against Princeton last April 25. In fact, Yale's was the only team to place ahead of the boat in the 2009 spring season.