UPDATE: FRESHMEN HEAVYWEIGHTS PACE CRIMSON AT IRAS

For both the Harvard men’s heavyweight and lightweight crew teams, this year has seen rigorous and dedicated training lead to success, but with the end of the spring season quickly approaching, each team has something left to prove.

At the IRA National Championships taking place this weekend, the heavyweights will attempt to put up a strong team showing and the lightweight varsity eight will try to improve on its two consecutive second-place finishes.

“I think the confidence level is pretty high,” heavyweight captain Teddy Schreck said. “We’ve been able to put in a lot of good work since exams and school [have] ended. There’s a lot of boats in a position to win next week.”

“Training has been going very well,” lightweight captain Jeff Overington said. “We’re working hard, focusing one day at a time.”

The heavyweights also have the vaunted Harvard-Yale Regatta on June 13 to look forward to, in which they will take on the Bulldogs for the 144th time in the event.

“The tradition plays the biggest part of it,” Schreck said. “You go and live in a compound in Connecticut that rowers have lived in since the 19th century. The tradition, the camaraderie—you basically live rowing for seven days.”

For both teams, these final races are the culmination of a long and arduous year in which they put themselves through grueling training regimens to prepare for races against the top teams in the nation.

While the fall season has little bearing on rankings and championships, both Harvard crews carried the momentum of the strong finishes from the fall head races into the spring, plowing through their early competition.

The heavyweight varsity eight narrowly edged a tenacious Brown crew on April 11 to take the Stein Cup. The heavies then proceeded to sweep their next three regattas, coming in first in all of its dual races.

“All year long, we’ve used our depth to our advantage to give us speed from top to bottom,” Schreck said.

The lightweights enjoyed similar success, also dominating the opposition and sweeping their first four regattas. The freshman eight was particularly impressive during this stretch, winning its races by convincing margins.

“I knew that they had a great group of guys and they’re well-coached,” Overington said regarding the freshmen. “With me graduating now and leaving…I feel like the future of the program is really promising.”

The lightweights’ run was cut short in a regatta against Princeton and Yale on April 25, when the Tigers got the best of the Crimson and handed Harvard its first second-place finish of the season.

At Eastern Sprints, both Crimson crews competed intensely, but the results were bittersweet. The heavyweight varsity eight was no match for a resurgent Brown boat, and Harvard came in second in overall team points.

“It was a bit disappointing,” Schreck says. “[But] we’re probably one of the top contenders coming into the national championship. There’s no point in looking back at Sprints and worrying about that.”

The lightweights took home the Jope Cup, given to the top overall team at Sprints, but the varsity eight once again could not take down Princeton, dropping the Grand Final by just over two seconds.

“It’s hard to be completely happy with a silver medal, but it’s also hard to be really disappointed when you know you’ve performed well,” said Overington, who is in the varsity eight. “It was a bunch of solid performances that combined together for a great team performance.”

With a successful season winding down but more left to accomplish, both crews have high hopes for the national championships in Sacramento, Calif.

“That’s what you train for all year,” Schreck said. “Right now we’re poised to go out to Sacramento and win a national championship in a number of events.”

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