It’s one thing to win at home—and quite another to take it to your opponent on its home course.

As impressive as the Harvard lightweights were at the Head of the Charles, they were even more so at yesterday’s Princeton Chase at Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J., where Harvard took first in both the varsity eight and varsity four events.

FOURS

“The fours race is always tough,” junior Erich Schultze said. “It’s really something you have to gear up for.”

And no one did a better job of that than Schultze and the Crimson’s top four, which won the fours event by over nine seconds.

The winning lineup consisted of junior Matt O’Leary in stroke, junior Alex Newell in three, senior Tim Moore in two, Schultze in bow, and sophomore coxswain Shane Bouchard. O’Leary and Schultze were both in Harvard’s 2010 A four, which won the race a year ago today.

“Last year we had a really good run with Will Newell [’11],” Schultze noted. “This year we had his little brother.”

But had the Crimson’s top four decided to take the afternoon off, Harvard still would have posted one of the top results of the day.

The Crimson’s second four placed fourth overall, behind only its own A boat and the top fours from the Tigers and Georgetown.

“Our first and second four results are unbelievable,” Schultze said. “It’s just such a good sign for us. That was really, really, really exciting.”

Sophomore Michael Wales stroked Harvard’s second four, and juniors Michael Paresky, Nick Gates, and Stu Taylor rowed in the three, two, and bow seats. Junior Alex Saal was the boat’s coxswain.

“I think it worked real, real well,” Wales said. “We just decided to get after it.”

“We set into a rhythm really easily,” Paresky added.

The Crimson’s D four finished 27th of 41, a little less than five seconds ahead of its C boat, which placed 29th. A year ago, Harvard’s third and fourth boats placed fifth and ninth, respectively.

EIGHTS