CORRECTION APPENDED

Although you can’t always win them all, there’s nothing sweeter than a sweep. While the Harvard men’s lightweight crew dropped its first race of the season Saturday in a matchup of the top three crews in the country, the Harvard heavyweights took on Navy and Penn and won all five races of the regatta—the first time it has done so all season.

The arduous journey to Annapolis, Md., on a bus with no air conditioning didn’t seem to faze the Crimson heavyweights, as the No. 5 varsity eight maintained its perfect record with a nine-second victory over Penn and No. 15 Navy. Setting the tone for the day, the crew improved to 5-0 on the season by completing the 2,000-meter course on the Severn River in 5:54.50, while the winless Quakers came in at 6:03.71 and the Midshipmen finished in 6:07.16. The win gave Harvard its 10th Adams Cup in a row and its 47th overall.

“We have a fantastic crew this year, we have the strongest kids in the nation, and I think we’re just continuing to prove how great we are,” sophomore coxswain Chris Kingston said. “I felt like we were really the admirals of the sea today.” [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

Harvard’s second varsity eight followed suit with its first win of the season, finding the finish line nearly seven seconds before Penn and Navy.

“Obviously we’ve been in a couple close races now,” captain Teddy Schreck said, “and it’s a big win, to have the opportunity just to the cross the line first.”

The freshman eight also stayed perfect with a 4.45 second win over Navy and Penn, finishing in 5:56.80.

The third varsity eight blew out its opponents, taking its race by a 17-second margin over the Midshipmen and a 28-second difference against the Quakers, and the second freshman eight closed things out, notching an eight-second victory over the Midshipmen.

“We’ve been working individually on different things, the small things that are going to make us faster come Sprints,” Schreck said. “I think across the whole board everyone really executed all the things we set up to work on at the beginning of the week.”

The Crimson’s stellar all-around performance was made even more impressive by difficult conditions, as the course’s proximity to the sea resulted in unsteady water that hindered smooth rowing.

But Harvard pulled through, and will look to finish strong in its final race of the spring before the all-important EARC Sprints. The Crimson returns home next weekend for the Charlie Smith Cup against Northeastern.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to get one last week of training in and to get a little faster,” Schreck said.

Coming off its own victory over Navy last week, Harvard’s lightweight crew traveled to New Haven, Conn. this weekend in a much-anticipated showdown with Princeton and Yale on the Housatonic River amidst excellent conditions.

The lightweight varsity eight was able to take down the third-ranked Bulldogs but fell to the undefeated No. 1 Tigers. It was the Crimson’s first loss of the season in nine races. Harvard finished in 5:52.7, 4.5 seconds ahead of host Yale but 5.2 ticks behind the victorious Princeton, which took the Goldthwait Cup for the second year running.

“Princeton’s a very good crew, and they pushed ahead of us early,” captain Jeff Overington said. “We raced hard but it wasn’t good enough on the day.”

Later in the morning, the Crimson won the second freshman eight and finished ahead of Princeton in the second varsity eight and third varsity eight. While the second varsity race was tight, with Yale beating the Crimson to the finish line by only 2.4 seconds, the third varsity eight race was even closer, as the Bulldogs edged the Crimson by 1.4 seconds.

The freshman eight, which finished in a time good for second place, was disqualified for missing a turning buoy, and in the second freshman eight, Harvard raced to a 14-second win. The loss was the freshman eight’s first on the season.

Yale won the Vogel Cup for most team points in the regatta, a repeat of its win last year. The Bulldogs narrowly beat out the Tigers for the overall title, amassing 30 points to Princeton’s 29. Hampered by the penalty, the Crimson totaled 24 points.

With the biggest races of its season rapidly approaching, Harvard must move forward quickly. The Crimson will have a week’s respite to prepare for the EARC Sprints May 10 in Worcester, Mass., which will be followed by the IRA National Championships in early June.

“We’re looking forward to the next opportunity we get to race everybody, and that’s the one that we’re focusing on,” Overington said. “We were hoping to have better results this weekend, but as a team we’re in a very strong position compared to the rest of the league.”

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

The April 27 sports article "Crimson Lights Pick Up First Loss" incorrectly attributed a quote to first varsity heavyweight coxswain Chris Kingston, after the article's author was given the wrong phone number for Kingston by senior James Bayley, another member of the first varsity heavyweight boat. In fact, the quote came from senior James Canning, who is on the third varsity heavyweight boat, and not Kingston.