The Midshipmen proved more of a challenge for the varsity eight than the Quaker crew. Navy jumped out to an early two-seat advantage in the first 20 strokes. Through the 500-meter mark, though, Harvard pushed out to roughly a three-seat lead. In the middle thousand, the Crimson’s margin grew to a stern deck on the Midshipmen’s bow deck. But Navy chipped away, narrowing the lead to half a length.

“Navy did a pretty good job and didn’t roll over or give up an inch,” Disanto said. “And up until 200 [meters] to go...it was a real dog fight.”

Harvard reclaimed a few seats in the final 200 meters of the race, finishing nearly two seconds ahead of Navy and over 12 seconds ahead of Penn in a time of 5:57.25.

In the second varsity race, the Crimson gradually pulled away from Navy over 2,000 meters, extending an early two-seat lead to a final 9.3-second margin. The second eight won in a time of 6:04.6.

The third and fourth varsity boats competed in the third varsity event, with the third eight pulling away from the field in the second half of the race, and the fourth varsity finishing ahead of the Quakers but behind the Midshipmen’s third varsity.

The first freshman eight continued its undefeated streak this season, overcoming an early Navy lead to win by almost four seconds in a time of 5:59.2.

The second freshman eight first put together a four that defeated Penn by 23 seconds and then combined in an eight that fell to Navy’s second freshman eight—the top-seeded boat in the league.

—Staff writer Jessica L. Flakne can be reached at jflakne@fas.harvard.edu.