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Harvard rowing retains Smith Cup for 18th straight year

The weather was crisp and so was the rowing on the Charles River early Saturday morning as Harvard defeated Northeastern by a half-length to retain the Smith Cup for the 18th consecutive year.

The Crimson, ranked fifth in the latest USRowing poll, covered the 2,000-meter course in 5 minutes 40.71 seconds, with seventh-ranked NU just 2.26 seconds behind.

The teams were neck and neck through the first 500 meters, with the crews exchanging slim margins with nearly every stroke.

Harvard managed to pull out to a deck lead at the 750-meter mark and increased that to a seat at the midway point. The Crimson continued to pull away, increasing the margin to three-quarters of a length by MIT’s Pierce Boathouse. The lead was a full length at 1,750 meters, but Northeastern made a late charge to halve the deficit by the finish line.

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“It was very hot racing the whole way,” Harvard coach Charley Butt said. “It was a real improvement for us. We feel like every week we’ve been able to move on. I’d say the same is true for Northeastern and the BU crews. As I watch the boats week to week, everybody is stepping up significantly.”

Northeastern coach John Pojednic thought his crew rowed well, especially since late-week lineup changes had given the Huskies very little practice time together.

“We made some major changes on Thursday night,” Pojednic said. “Both our first varsity and second varsity have lacked a rhythm all season. This week the second varsity actually started to beat the varsity in practice, so we made some changes to both boats that wound up giving both boats a rhythm they were working with.

“While it was very late in the week to make those changes, both boats had a higher level of speed with just a practice and a half under our belt than we would have had if we had continued with the lineups that we previously had.”

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The change worked for the NU second varsity, which took its race against two Harvard boats.

Despite a Crimson boat surging to a three-seat lead at the 500-meter mark, Northeastern rowed an extremely strong middle 1,000 meters, taking a deck-length lead at 1,500 meters, and holding on for a 2.47-second victory.

Harvard is now off from competition until the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints on May 17.

Northeastern headed to Madison, Wisc., immediately after the race to face the 15th-ranked Badgers in a Sunday morning regatta for its final competitive tuneup prior to the Sprints.

“They’re already here and it feels like early April,” Butts said of the Sprints. “A lot of that has to do with the weather.

“We go into reading period and exams the next two weeks, so we’ll just try to get our miles in and continue to get better.”

Northeastern completed exams last week, and Pojednic is looking forward to working with his new groupings.

“We had two freshmen in our varsity eight that did a really good job today,” Pojednic said. “I’m not sure we’re done sorting out the boats yet, but between a couple of more changes in personnel and some time to work on things, I think we’re back on the right track.”