By Ricky Popolizio
The previously undefeated Northeastern varsity men’s crew team could not keep up with No. 1 ranked Harvard in the Smith Cup last Saturday on the Charles River.
Harvard, the two-time defending national champion, cruised to a 7.1 second victory over the No. 6 ranked Huskies for their eighth straight Smith Cup victory. The Crimson now have fourteen Smith Cup victories to Northeastern’s three.
The second varsity race was the highlight of the day for Northeastern. After trailing by a seat at the 500-meter mark, NU pulled ahead and finished 2.4 seconds before Harvard.
“The story of the day was the second varsity,” said senior varsity rower Brogan Graham. “They rowed a great race from beginning to end. Harvard started inching away [around the 500-meter mark], but the one senior Brian Baraty, who sits first seat, noticed Harvard moving away. [Baraty] and the coxswain took charge and went with Harvard all the way to the very end. It was great.
“[Baraty] was the man. He had his crew respond and just turned around that outcome. He’s lost to Harvard every time he has raced them, but that wasn’t happening this time.”
Baraty was quick to give the credit to the rest of his teammates.
“Although everyone else in the boat was working hard, I have to set the rhythm and pace,” said Baraty. “But we wouldn’t have done anything if the other guys didn’t follow my lead. We were pretty excited and confident about the whole race.”
The second varsity Huskies got out ahead from the beginning and were up a seat and a half early. Harvard came back and went ahead by a seat at the 500-meter mark, but the Huskies took over in the remaining 1500 meters.
“We made a couple moves, and started walking away with it,” Baraty said. “At the halfway point we were four seats up, and then we took another move and went up a boat length. We haven’t beaten Harvard in like five years, so we were pretty excited about that.”
Despite the victory, Baraty felt that the team could improve on finishing races well.
“We need to work on our sprints,” Baraty said (the last 400 meters of the race where crews pick up the pace). “Harvard kind of walked back on us a couple seats at the end. In the beginning of the season we had to work on our start, and we have improved. So now we need to work on our sprint. We have proven we can work on something and get it done.”
For the varsity team, Harvard’s powerhouse boat was too fast. The Crimson began to inch away around the 500-meter mark. Halfway through the race, Harvard had a one length lead and by the 1500-meter point, the Crimson led by a length and a quarter. Harvard finished the race with a two-length victory at 5:42.8, while Northeastern came in at 5:49.9.
“They ended up beating us by a little more than seven seconds, which puts us behind Princeton, who finished around six seconds [behind Harvard],” Graham said. “We are in the hunt for a medal, which is good, but we would like to close that margin on Harvard before we play them in a couple weeks. [Today] was kind of a disappointment. It was an OK race, but there are a lot of changes to be made before we race them again. There’s a new lineup, and we are going to stick with that.”
The new lineup is an attempt by the varsity crew to find the best combination to maximize boat speed, said Graham.
“The next week will be a lot of hard training and racing among our team,” Graham said. “We have a lot of time.”
The varsity crew faces Pennsylvania on Sunday morning in the Burk Cup. The race is the Huskies last on the Charles this season. The race also marks the 40th anniversary of the men’s rowing team at Northeastern.
