Watch Live: No. 4 Harvard Heavyweights Close Home Slate, Eye Smith Cup

After celebrating their win against Princeton April 17, members of the Harvard varsity eight watched as Northeastern raced Brown.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The fourth-ranked Harvard heavyweight crew wraps up its 2010 home racing schedule by taking on local rival Northeastern for the Smith Cup Saturday morning in a battle of Boston's two fastest crews so far this spring.

Watch from Home
Northeastern will provide free live video streaming of the varsity eight race here.

Racing Schedule
7:12 a.m. – Freshman Four
7:48 a.m. –Freshman Eight
8:24 a.m. – Varsity Eight
9 a.m. – Second/Third/Fourth Varsity Eights

Harvard Lineups
Varsity Eight
Cox: Kelly Evans, 8: Patrick Lapage, 7: Matt Edstein, 6: Nick Jordan, 5: David Wakulich, 4: Sam O'Connor, 3: Michael DiSanto, 2: Anthony Locke, 1: Blake Pucsek 

Second Varsity Eight
Cox: Joseph Lin, 8: Benjamin French, 7: Noah Bruegmann, 6: Mark Fuller, 5: Spencer Livingston, 4: Phil Matthews, 3: Christopher Fuller, 2: Ivan Posavec, 1: Elihu Reynolds

Third Varsity Eight
Cox: Alex Sopko, 8: Jack Morrissey, 7: Robert Stone, 6: Kyle Gordon, 5: Connor Griffith, 4: Lukens Orthwein, 3: Karl Hirt, 2: Richard Anderson, 1: Alex Soutter

Fourth Varsity Eight
Cox: Tian Feng, 8: Alex Housser, 7: David Paresky, 6: Nigel Munoz, 5: Andrew Hamm, 4: Andrew Stein, 3: Andew Safir, 2: Edward Winters Ronaldson, 1: Michael Velchik

Freshman Eight
Cox: David Fuller, 8: Peter Scholle, 7: James O'Connor, 6: Parker Washburn, 5: Justin Mundt, 4: Jason Phillips, 3: Eli Shikaloff, 2: Alex MacIntosh, 1: Josh Hicks

Freshman Four
Cox: Colby Wilkason, 4: Matthew Vincent, 3: Nolan Pollock, 2: William Polachek, 1: Tom Hanson

Last Time Out
The Crimson won five of six races against No. 16 Navy and No. 18 Penn. The Harvard varsity eight overcame an early Navy lead and held off a late charge by the Midshipmen to win by two seconds and keep the Adams Cup for the 11th straight year and the 47th time in 74 years.

Harvard's second varsity eight and freshman four won handily, while the freshman and third varsity eights came from behind to win. Navy captured the second freshman eight.

The Crimson, by Boat
The second EARC seeding poll of the season was released Tuesday and each Crimson boat maintained its position from last week. Harvard's varsity eight (5-1) is ranked second, trailing only Brown, in the conference. The Crimson has the top-ranked freshman eight (5-0) in the league, while the second varsity (4-1) and second freshman (2-1) eights are both ranked second and the third varsity (4-1) is fifth.

Home Sweet Home
The Harvard varsity eight has defeated its last 14 dual opponents when racing at home on the Charles River. The Crimson's last home loss was April 15, 2006 against Princeton. Harvard has defeated 39 of its last 40 home dual opponents and 18 of its last 19 overall dual foes.

History Lesson
The Harvard varsity eight beat Northeastern by 10.5 seconds last year, its 12th straight dual win against the Huskies, as part of a five-race sweep of the Smith Cup regatta. The Crimson holds an 18-3 lead in a cup series that dates back to 1989. There has seen several tight races for the trophy, including a 0.7-second Harvard win in 2008 and a one???second margin in Northeastern's last victory, in 1997.

Scouting the Huskies
Northeastern's varsity eight cruised to victory aganist Oregon State April 24 and edged Penn by less than two seconds a day later. The Huskies also own a dual win against Boston University and, like the Crimson, have lost only to Brown this season. The Bears beat Northeastern by one second April 17. The NU second varsity is 2-2, and the freshman eight is 1-3.

The Course
The Charles River's 2,000-meter race course starts about 100 meters upstream from the Longfellow Bridge in the Charles River Basin and ends in front of the Hyatt Regency hotel. Popular viewing points include the shoreline in front of the Hyatt and the Harvard Bridge (Massachusetts Avenue), which sits above the course's midpoint.