Yale completes 4-peat in style
WORCESTER — Yale remained king of Lake Quinsigamond yesterday, rowing to a fourth consecutive victory in the varsity heavyweight grand final at the 73rd Eastern Sprints championships.
It was the undefeated Bulldogs first four-peat at the event, and the first since Harvard won five straight from 1972-76.
Harvard was second behind its rival for a second consecutive year after making a late push to edge Princeton and Brown. A key to the Yale win was the insertion of 6-foot7 junior Charley Elwes back into the boat in the No.5 seat. Elwes, who rowed in the sixth seat during Yale’s run to the national title a year ago, had been out with a stress fracture.
“Charley integrated nicely back into the boat and helped speed up the boat,” said Yale coach Steve Gladstone. “They’ve had a great season but there is a long ways to go with the nationals.”
The start in the grand final was clean for all six crews, and Princeton posed an early threat before Brown took up the gauntlet. Yale seemed to hardly break a sweat as it put distance between the five chasing crews with every stroke. The finish times had Yale at an unpressed 5:54.66, followed by Harvard (5:58.67), Brown (5:58.23), Princeton (5:58.72), Northeastern (6:01.17) and Boston University (6:03.60).
Yale also edged out Princeton for the Rowe Cup, accumulating 39 points in all the heavyweight races, four ahead of Princeton and seven more than Harvard. Columbia claimed the Jope Cup in the lightweight divisions, accruing 35 points to Princeton’s 34.
The morning heats of the varsity heavyweight eights proved to be tight racing along the sun-splashed, cool conditions. Yale edged BU in the opening heat, rowing a time of 5:40.18 to BU’s 5:41.80 over the 2,000-meter course, as the top two finishers from each heat advanced to the afternoon grand final.
Heat 2 saw Princeton battle Brown to the line, with the Tigers clocking 5:41:07 to the runner-up Bears’ 5:42:00. Dartmouth had to settle for third and a trip to the nonscoring Petite Final. The final heat of the morning found perennial champion Harvard rowing to a 5:40:28 time, nipping a very competitive NU crew, which finished in 5:40:96, as Wisconsin was nearly 10 seconds behind in third.
The first grand final of the afternoon card was the third varsity heavyweight eights (formerly freshmen) event. Winner Yale (5:48.62) and runner-up Princeton (5:49.22) quickly turned it into a two-boat challenge, with BU early on looking good for the bronze medal. But the Terriers (5:55.06) couldn’t maintain their 38-strokes-per-minute cadence and were caught in the closing 500 meters by Harvard (5:54.42). Northeastern finished fifth in 5:57.72, just ahead of Dartmouth (5:59.67).
The third varsity boats of Harvard and Yale will row a 2-mile race as part of the 153rd annual H-Y Regatta on the Thames River in New London next month.
The second varsity race was likewise a two-boat contest, as Princeton (5:58.82) out-rowed Yale (5:59.35) by about a two-seat margin as Brown (6:03.61) surged past the tiring Huskies (6:04.80) in the last 25 meters to eke out the bronze medal. Harvard (6:07.10) and Dartmouth (6:17.04) rounded out the field.