The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Bulldogs look to cap successful season with win over rival Harvard
GALES FERRY — It’s been another magnificent season for Yale’s rowing program, which is currently undefeated in dual races with a fifth straight Eastern Sprints championship and third straight national title in tow.
But to the oarsmen who’ve racked up the accolades, the season won’t feel like a complete success without a victory at Saturday’s Yale-Harvard Regatta.
“(Losing) can be a real sting,” Yale captain Angus Morrison said. “It can taint the work that’s been done before and it can serve as an incredible motivator for the season to come.”
Harvard, which routinely defeated Yale in the nation’s oldest intercollegiate sporting event, now plays second fiddle to its archrival as the Bulldogs are quickly establishing themselves as an all-time dynasty.
It’s already the first heavyweight crew to win five straight Eastern Sprint titles in 42 years and the first to capture three straight national titles since Washington earlier this decade.
Yale hasn’t lost the annual regatta since 2014, a stretch of three wins in four races that includes the infamous 2016 no contest. That year, Harvard’s boat swamped with Yale well ahead. The referee stopped the race. Yale finished and disputed the result to no avail.
Victory for the Bulldogs Saturday would mark the longest winless stretch for Harvard since 1954-58.
“It’s a big race,” Yale coach Steve Gladstone said.
Per tradition that dates back at least 100 years, Yale’s rowers have spent the week living together on the banks of the Thames River. Upperclassmen reside in the compound’s main house. Coaches live next door. The first-years are just behind them in the boathouse.
It provides not only a bonding opportunity, but the unique chance to see the opponent up close for the week. Harvard’s crew resides in a building nicknamed Red Top, located just a short drive from Yale. Their training sessions are visible from just about every window in the Bulldogs’ compound.
“The intensity of the rivalry is bred here while you’re racing and seeing the other crew out there while you’re racing,” Morrison said. “You go into it thinking it’s never going to come easy.”
Yale has beaten Harvard’s varsity boat twice in the past three weeks. There was a six-second win at the Eastern Sprints and a five-second win at the IRA nationals in California last weekend. Of course, the distance of the regatta, at four miles, is twice as long as any race the teams have competed all season. So while the Bulldogs are clear favorites, the uniqueness of the race is an X factor.
Yale, if anything, is prepared.
“Racing is racing,” Gladstone said. “But races are not won on race day. You can’t transcend your level of training. It’s true for a swimmer, a runner, an oarsman. You can’t reach incredible highs just because it’s a big event.”
It’s no coincidence that Yale’s rise as a program coincides with Gladstone’s arrival in New Haven nine years ago. The change wasn’t immediate. But improved recruiting combined with Gladstone’s coaching allowed Yale to flip the script on Harvard.
The Crimson had won 14 races in 15 years prior to 2015. That’s the year Yale won with a series upstream record time of 18 minutes, 35 seconds. There’s a rock near the finish line on the far shore of the Thames that, per agreement, is painted by the winning team. It’s been Yale blue for the past four years.
“We’re incredibly proud,” said Yale senior Charlie Elwes, one of the world’s top oarsmen who’ll compete for Great Britain in the Tokyo Olympics next summer. “It’s a testament to the classes above us. They were the guys who did the heavy lifting in turning the program around. They committed to Yale not knowing Yale would be good in a few years’ time. They were committing on the back of pretty average performances and they took a leap of faith. It’s special to follow in the footsteps of some of those people.”