Men's heavyweight crew tops Harvard

One week after the Harvard heavyweight crew team became No. 1 on the East Coast, Princeton knocked them aside Saturday at Carnegie Lake.

The Tigers finished in five minutes, 31.3 seconds — two seconds ahead of the Crimson. With that, the Tigers claimed the Compton Cup. MIT drifted across the line in third place with a time of 6:04.6. Princeton won the second varsity eight in 5:45.8, topping Harvard by four seconds. The third varsity eight stretched the gap even further to six seconds, winning in 5:56.9.

Harvard had reached the top spot by beating Brown the week before, but the Tigers outdistanced them to take the No. 1 ranking. California still holds the top spot nationally.

Harvard scored its only win of the day in the frosh/novice eight, winning in 5:47.0. Finally, Princeton took the second frosh/novice eight in 6:03.5, as Harvard crossed in 6:07.4. MIT finished that race in 7:08.7.

The men's lightweight team enjoyed similar dominance, sweeping Penn in all four races. In the varsity eight, Penn held close to Princeton for the first 1500 meters of the race, but the Tigers closed fast to finish in 6:05.0, five seconds ahead of Penn, which crossed in 6:10.1.

Princeton's second varsity lightweight eight continued its undefeated spring, jumping ahead early and continuing to stretch the lead to roast the Quakers by 16 seconds.

The first freshman eight, another undefeated squad, steadily pushed ahead, leading by one boat length at the start, two boat lengths at 700 meters, and three at the 1000-meters mark. They stuck with that comfortable lead until the end, winning in 6:16.2.

The lightweight teams will take on Harvard and No. 1 Yale in their final regular season matchup next weekend at Mercer County Park as part of the Zurich World Rowing Cup. The heavyweights will head to Yale to take on the Elis and Cornell.