Season Preview: Deep Men's Lightweight Squad Starts Season at No. 2

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The Harvard men’s lightweight crew begins its spring season Saturday against Delaware, seeking to maintain the form that helped the Crimson win the Jope Cup as Eastern Sprints team champion and appear on the IRA National Championships podium last season.

Most of the varsity eight is back this year, and the other varsity boats return almost entirely intact, setting up Harvard to pick up where it left off in 2009 and compete for Sprints and IRA titles. The Crimson begins the season ranked second nationally, trailing only Princeton. Harvard received one of the 10 first-place votes in the first USRowing Collegiate Poll.

A true team effort keyed the Crimson’s outstanding 2009 season, as five boats medaled at Eastern Sprints. Harvard claimed gold in the third varsity eight, silver in the varsity eight and freshman eight and bronze in the second varsity eight and freshman eight. The Jope Cup win was the third in six years for head coach Charley Butt’s team and the 20th overall for Harvard.

The varsity eight ranked among the nation’s best all season, posting an 8-1 dual record and going on to capture a bronze medal at the IRA regatta. Oarsmen Will Newell, Andrew Trott, Jared Dourdeville, Martin Eiermann and Michael Silvestri return from that top boat, along with coxswain Dexter Louie.

All eight gold-winning rowers from the third varsity are back in 2010, as are coxswain Lizzy Maybanks seven of the eight second-varsity oarsmen: Tyler Caldwell, Sean Duncan, Dan Farrell, Ben Bayley, Andrew Corcoran, Michael Murray and Benjamin Tuyp.

With all of those oarsmen again in the mix and the addition of last season’s standout freshman crew ascending to the varsity, there is plenty of lightweight talent at Newell Boathouse available to step into the empty seats left by the three seniors in last season’s varsity eight and keep up competition for seats throughout the Crimson boatings.

The Schedule
Saturday’s season-opening race against Delaware is one of just two home events on the Crimson’s spring schedule. Harvard travels to Cornell to take on the Big Red and Penn Quakers April 10 and rows at home against Georgetown and St. Joseph’s a day later. Three straight road regattas follow, concluding with the Goldthwait Cup May 1 at Princeton, a matchup of Harvard, Princeton and Yale, the top three teams in the national rankings.

The Eastern Sprints are May 16 on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, and the IRA National Championships are June 3-5 on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.

This Weekend
The Crimson faces a Delaware squad that already has one regatta under its belt this spring. The Blue Hens took on Penn and, in the varsity eight only, Marietta. The Delaware freshman eight beat Penn, but first and second varsities each lost by about four seconds. The Blue Hens varsity eight defeated Marietta by nearly 15 seconds. The Delaware varsity is coming off a gold-medal win at last season’s Dad Vail Regatta.

Saturday’s Racing Schedule
7:12 a.m. – Freshman Fours
7:48 a.m. – Freshman Eight
8:36 a.m. – Second and Third Varsity Eights
9:24 a.m. – Varsity Eight

Harvard Lineups
Varsity Eight
Cox: Dexter Louie, 8: Tim Moore, 7: Austin Meyer, 6: Will Newell, 5: Andrew Trott, 4: Billy Hennrikus, 3: Martin Eiermann, 2: Tyler Caldwell, 1: James Stewart

Second Varsity Eight
Cox: Lizzy Maybank, 8: Jared Dourdeville, 7: Ben Bayley, 6: Michael Murray, 5: Sean Duncan, 4: Tom Nesel, 3: Andrew Corcoran, 2: Benjamin Tuyp, 1: Michael Silvestri

Third Varsity Eight
Cox: Angela Chang, 8: Matt Gibbons, 7: Christopher Oland, 6: Jordan Cotton, 5: Gary Pellisier, 4: Joseph Shivers, 3: Martin Wallner, 2: Joshua Foote, 2: Kevin Fiamingo

Freshman Eight
Cox: Paul Farber, 8: Florian Mayr, 7: Erich Schultze, 6: James Groeneveld, 5: Nicholas Gates, 4: Michael Paresky, 3: Tom Foley, 2: Matt O'Leary, 1: Alex Newell

Freshman Four A
Cox: Alexander Saal, 4: Kevin Connolly, 3: Gabriel Lloyd, 2: Craig Herron, 1: Antonio Carvalho

Freshman Four B
Cox: Abiola Laniyonu, 4: Francisco Triana, 3: Arturo Villanueva, 2: Chris Henderson, 1: Simon Maas

Freshman Four C
Cox: Aidan Daly, 4: Noah Guiney, 3: Paolo Singer, 2: Francis Thumpasery, 1: Gabriel Walker

Freshman Four D
Cox: David Roher, 4: Charles Hobbs, 3: Jacob Pritt, 2: Dewahar Senthoor, 1: Alan Silva