LUCERNE, Switzerland - Henrik Rummel '09 won gold with the United States men's four, highlighting the performances of Harvard and Radcliffe alumni and current student-athletes at the Samsung World Rowing Cup #3 on the Rotsee.

Four other Harvard and Radcliffe athletes also raced at Lucerne – Vincent Breet '16, Michael DiSanto '12, Esther Lofgren '09 and Michael Wales '14. Breet helped South Africa win the B Final in a time of 6:29.63. Wales took silver behind Great Britain in the light men's pair with Tyler Nase. The pair finished with a time of 6:36.17. 

Rummel and USA finished the race in 5:50.78, just under one second ahead of second-place Australia.   

"I don't think we're quite as fast as we were last year, because it's a post-Olympic year, but the US team as a whole is in much better spot right now than we were four years ago," said Rummel to Erik Dresser of row2k.com. "We have a full group training and fast people back in Princeton ready to take our seats. We are excited for the road ahead, but I also don't want to blow it up to more than it is - World Cup gold in a post-Olympic year.

"This is our first international event, ever, and my first international event in a sweep boat," said Wales to row2k.com. "Our plan was to just to keep it under control and realize that you can't go out too hard in the beginning, especially in international racing. You have to be smart. 

"We knew we were going to have a really big move at the end and so we were trying to stay in contention," he continued. "When we came into the 350 (meters to go), we really started moving. I think that's when we knew we were going to do something special. That's when we just kept going, and kept feeding off of each other and just kept building off of each other's pushes all the way through the line."

The USA men's eight boat also raced in the "Harry Parker," handing Germany its first loss since 2009.