Harvard men’s heavyweight crew started off its spring season on Saturday by competing on opposite coasts.

The first and second varsity eights traveled to California to compete in the San Diego Crew Classic, a two-day racing event.  Meanwhile, on the East Coast, the third varsity boat and the two freshman boats raced against Cornell.

The Crimson had a successful weekend overall, taking first place in four of five events and putting up a strong, second-place finish in the Sharp Cabrillo Cup.

SAN DIEGO CREW CLASSIC

The first two Harvard varsity boats competed alongside nearly 4000 racers at the San Diego Crew Classic on Saturday and Sunday. The Classic allowed the Crimson to take on its West Coast challengers, UC Berkeley, Stanford and UC Davis, early on in the season.

The outing was a successful one for both boats: The first varsity boat won the Copley Cup in 6:17.88, and the second varsity boat placed second in 6:21.99 behind the Cal A crew.

On Saturday, the 1V qualified for grand finals in 5:55.043.  Harvard led second-place Navy by two seats early on and stretched that lead to almost a boat length by the end of the qualifier.

The Crimson won the Copley Cup title the following morning. Two seats behind Cal, Harvard overtook the Golden Bears near the 1000-meter mark.

“Even though we were down, we were really confident about how we were rowing and started taking seats,” said senior Patrick Lapage, stroke seat of the first varsity eight. “Once we started to boost [our] rhythm, we had done enough to secure the win.”

“It is good to get off to a winning start but there is still a lot of work to do for Sprints and Nationals,” Lapage added. “We are happy with it, but we are going to put it behind us and crack on with it here.”

The second varsity eight also qualified for grand finals on Saturday morning with an open-water victory over Cornell. In the finals of the Sharp Cabrillo Cup, the Cal A crew nearly achieved an open-water lead over Harvard at the start. The Crimson mounted a comeback but was unable to make up the distance.  Harvard finished in second by 2.7 seconds, edging out the Cal B crew, Cornell, Stanford, and UC Davis.

HARVARD VS. CORNELL

Harvard coasted to victory over Cornell, with all three Crimson crews topping their Big Red counterparts on Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y.

Under a slight headwind, but otherwise mild conditions, the third varsity eight defeated Cornell by a margin of 12.8 seconds. But because of the Crimson’s lane draw, the crew started down and inside of the first and larger of the two turns in the Cornell course.

“After we did our start and high strokes, we found ourselves even because of some of the advantage Cornell was getting from being on the outside of the turn,” said senior David Paresky, third seat of the third varsity eight.

The race remained relatively close throughout the first 500 meters.

“I thought they had a good strong start, and so did we,” said sophomore William Hakim, coxswain of the third varsity eight. “For the first 500 meters, we were both really going at it.”

At around the 500-meter point, the race started to open up in Harvard’s favor.

“We took a push and we really started taking seats,” Hakim said. “We just kept moving and kept our foot on the pedal through the rest of the race.”

Harvard was able to hold on to its lead and defeat the Cornell crew in 6:09.8.

The first and second freshman eights each won their races with times of 6:03.7 and 6:18.4, respectively.  The strong showing at Cornell was important for building momentum for the Crimson right at the start of the season.

“In the past, Cornell has been one of our tougher dual races,” Paresky said. “It was really exciting to get such a big win early in the season.”

Harvard continues its Ivy League matchups with a race against Brown on April 7th in Providence, R.I.

“Last year, the 3V was not able to win [the] Sprints Championship at the end of the season,” Paresky said. “That was a big disappointment for us given that we had gone undefeated in the regular season.  I think the focus this year is just to make sure to get faster so that we can give it our best shot when it comes time for Sprints.”

—Staff writer Alexa N. Gellman can be reached at agellman@college.harvard.edu.