Twenty strokes off of the start on Saturday morning, the Northeastern heavyweights saw it coming.

They saw it just like the other victims from 21 consecutive dual races have seen it—a blur of Crimson, eight oars coursing through the water in one splashless motion, a distinctively yellow shell propelled forward by eight six-foot-plus men in the haze of the foggy mid-morning.

They saw it, they heard Harvard coxswain Kit Randolph urging the boat forward, and they may have even felt it—but their recognition of the Crimson’s move did nothing to stop it.

Instead, Harvard plowed through the Northeastern boat after the two boats settled to a base cadence, establishing a half-length lead by the time they entered the second 500.

“We took our first 10 at 400 meters and started gradually walking up on their boat,” Randolph said. “We were sitting on their bow man by about the 700-meter mark.”

Northeastern tried to trim Harvard’s advantage with a strong surge just after 750 meters down. Closing in on the Mass. Ave. Bridge, the Huskies took the midpoint move early, upping the stroke rating and looking to test Harvard’s confidence.

“They definitely pushed on us hard,” Randolph said. “I could feel them coming up on us a little out of the bridge.”

Northeastern’s move earned it all of one seat on the Harvard boat, and the Crimson quickly countered with an established midway push of its own. At the halfway point, Harvard refused to sit on the Huskies’ bow ball any longer.

“When they made a huge push,” junior stroke Adam Kosmicki said, “the guys really responded to it. “They came off the move, and we just started taking it up and had a much stronger second one thousand.”

The Crimson spent the second half of the race widening the open-water gap between the two boats. As both crews pushed past the MIT boathouse near the 1,300-meter mark, Harvard had established a near two-boat length lead. The Crimson used the final 500 meters to make a further statement against the talented No. 6 Huskies, adding yet more open water to its lead. The heavyweights crossed the line in a time of 5:42.8 Northeastern followed in 5:49.7, just over two lengths behind Harvard.

The win was Harvard’s 21st consecutive dual victory and capped off a perfect 4-0 dual season record. The Crimson beat every 2005 dual opponent by open water, with a six-plus second victory over then-No. 1 Princeton on April 16 its closest call.

For Harvard seniors Aaron Holzapfel and Malcolm Howard—five-seat and seven-seat, respectively—the win capped off a three-year undefeated dual run. Howard and Holzapfel are the only two first varsity oarsmen remaining from the 2003 and 2004 championship boats.

“We know there’s a long streak now,” Howard said, “but I think from the very beginning it’s been more important to take every race as it comes, take every practice as it comes, and try to make each one a little bit better. We obviously want to win, but it’s not about the record.”

The win puts Harvard at the top of the EARC and U.S. Rowing polls going into the Eastern Sprints. The Crimson has captured the Sprints title the last two years, with both victories followed by open-water wins at the IRA national championships.

And even with seven new faces in this year’s varsity crew, the Crimson showed on Saturday that it is poised for another late season run.