“We took 12 seconds in the first third of the race,” Jordan said. “We kept going for more. We got pretty tired for the second half of the race because we had put a lot into the first half. But by then, we had a really good margin and just cruised on over to the finish.”

The freshman eight posted an 8.5-second win over Yale after the two-mile race had to be paused and restarted by officials. Large waves from a passing speedboat disrupted the crews and threatened to affect the race. After the restart, the Crimson finished off the last half mile of the race for a combined winning time of 10:25.6.

The combination fours raced on Friday, with both Harvard crews finishing ahead of the Bulldogs. The Crimson A and B fours finished in 11:22 and 11:27, respectively, over Yale’s time of 11:48.

IRA National Championships are the last remaining event of the collegiate rowing season.  Harvard looks to boost its speed as it will face big-name crews in the faster-pace championship racing.

“We have certainly picked up some speed from where we were at [EARC] Sprints,” DiSanto said. “Harry [Parker] has worked us hard, and we have responded well. I am excited to get on the water down in New Jersey and see how fast we can get it going.”

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