“We planned to go out and row and pace in the first mile,” Lapage said. “It just worked out that we were at least level or slightly leading them for most of the first mile. We sort of picked up the pace a little bit going into the second mile.”
Yale stayed in range and trailed by just three seconds through a mile and a half, but Harvard soon gained open water and increased its advantage to six seconds halfway through.
The Bulldogs could never get back into the race from there. The Crimson lead increased to 10 seconds through three miles and 14 seconds through 3.5, before finishing with the 13.7-second win.
“I think Yale had put a lot of effort into staying with us the first mile,” Lapage said. “In the second half, we just started pulling away pretty confidently.”
After winning the Eastern Sprints Championships earlier in the month, the race marked Harvard’s final tuneup before the IRA National Championships in Cherry Hill, N.J.
“I think we were all really pleased,” Locke added. “We definitely had a plan that we wanted to execute, and I think we did a real good job executing the plan.”
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.