“It’s not about the margins, it’s just about rowing the best possible race you can,” Randolph said. “When we take a move, it’s all eight guys making a move together. It’s eight guys doing it for one another. That’s different for eight guys who want one goal but want it individually.”
The varsity’s win, coupled with wins in the varsity four, the second freshman four, and the first freshman eight, gave Harvard the Smith Cup for the eighth consecutive year and improved the Crimson’s all-time record against Northeastern to 23-3.
The second varsity lost a back-and-forth race despite taking a quick one-seat jump off of the start. The two boats exchanged moves going into the second 500, with Harvard striking first and adding to its slight lead. Northeastern’s counter followed just after the Crimson came out of its surge and brought the Huskies back to within one seat.
At 750 meters down, the two boats were locked in a bow ball battle that had all the makings of a photo finish. Then Northeastern began another strong push through the 1,000-meter mark and took a few precious seats from the Harvard boat.
“Coming out of the bridge,” senior five-seat Will Ulrich said, “we went from being up a seat to being down three-to-four seats through the one thousand.”
Northeastern continued to add to the lead throughout the third 500, establishing a six-to-seven seat cushion as the two boats passed the MIT boathouse.
Harvard countered the near open-water lead after reaching the 500-meter marker, and the Crimson moved up as much as three seats on the Huskies. The race, however, was not long enough for a Harvard boat that found its power just a few meters too late.
“I thought if we had a little more space, we could have done a little more with the margin,” Ulrich said. “I thought we raced well, it was definitely the best race we had so far.”
The No. 5 second varsity will likely swap rankings with Northeastern, which entered the weekend ranked sixth in the EARC poll.
The tight finish was an auspicious sign for the second varsity, which started off the season with a win over Brown but has since lost on each of the last three weekends.
“We felt like we got it going against NU, one of our tough competitors,” Ulrich said. “It’s promising to see how much time we can make up on those guys.”
The Crimson will return to action on May 15, when both varsity boats look to defend their 2004 Sprints titles in Worcester, Mass.
—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.