The Harvard men’s lightweight class of 2013 didn’t have a weak link in the 2010 spring dual season. The 1F and 2F powered their way to second-place finishes at EARC Sprints. With all its members returning for their sophomore season, the Lucky ‘13s appear poised to make an impact in their three years on varsity for the Crimson.

Depth. Experience. Hunger. Talent. Success. Potential. The Lucky ’13s seem to have everything—except Eastern Sprints gold. After checking off everything on its to-do list except that final accomplishment, all nine members of last year’s first lightweight freshman eight have returned to Newell Boathouse emboldened by their success and fueled by the one blemish on an otherwise stainless season.

Joining them on their quest is a group of walk-ons who’d never handled an oar before arriving in Cambridge and taking a seat on last year’s 2F boat.

The sophomore class, nicknamed the “Lucky ’13s” by Harvard lightweight freshman coach Linda Muri, is the first in her nine-year tenure to return its entire 1F and 2F lineups from the year before. Both boats took silver at EARC Sprints in May.

“That has to be the best combined record in my time here,” Muri says.

The success started last fall when the Harvard 1F won the Princeton Chase, took fourth in the Club Eight—a heavyweight event—at the Head of the Charles, and then won the Tail of the Charles.

“They seemed to really get along very well from the first day on move-in,” Muri says. “They stood on the dock in a huge circle and talked for a while.”

That closeness continued to translate into on-the-water success in the spring, when, according to Muri, the 1F went undefeated in the dual season for the first time since 1979 before finally falling to Princeton in the finals of Eastern Sprints.

Now on the varsity team, the nine from that first freshman boat have wasted little time making an impact—no small accomplishment given that the lightweight varsity eight also finished its dual season unbeaten.

“It’s been really competitive,” sophomore Erich Schultze says. “It’s really exciting to be able to push the juniors and seniors. I think because of the depth we have...it can make all the boats in the program better.”

“They will definitely impact the team for the next three years,” Muri concurs. “We’ll see a lot [of them] in the 1V and 2V.”

With all nine of the 2F returning, the sophomore impact won’t be limited to the 1F alums alone.

“The 2F definitely got some good results,” Schultze says. “More than the results, we really got close with them. They bought into what it was to be part of the team. They really enjoyed it, saw a lot of value in it.”

Hoping to bring the walk-ons closer with the recruits last year, Muri paired each recruit with a novice rower and found the effort to be quite successful.

“That core group was very welcoming of the novice guys,” Muri recalls. “I think the [pair] that was the most surprising was Arturo Villanueva and James Groeneveld. Somehow they really hit it off in a way that was entertaining and just eye-opening.”

The bond between the Texan walk-on and the Australian recruit was just one example of the cohesiveness of last year’s freshman class. That kind of closeness translated into competitiveness on the water.