After taking a year "off" in 2006, when Princeton won the Sprints, things around the EARC seem back to "normal" these days, with Harvard in ranked position to take their 4th title in the past 5 years. The Crimson have been a nearly frightening model of consistency lately: you have to go all the way back to the 2000 season for the last time Harvard did not place first or second at Sprints. And it's not just in the Varsity, either: Harvard's squad comes to these Sprints ranked first in 4 of 5 events (V8, F8, 3V, 2F), while the JV is "only" ranked second.
The Harvard Varsity, for the record, is undefeated and has wins over Princeton and Brown to recommend them. Yale is ranked second in the V8, but the elephant in the room has to be Brown. Yale ended an impressive undefeated regular season, the first in quite a while, with a two-second margin over Princeton, while Brown put a sliver of open water on the Tigers a week later; Harvard beat Princeton by just over a second mid-season, so on transitive margin alone you have to figure that Brown has speed. With Yale and Harvard not having met (the two squads do their own little thing a week after the IRA), and Yale and Brown not having raced either thus far, this three-way brawl will likely define these championships.
Also looming large at the #5 slot is Wisconsin, who has raced some middle-of-the-pack squads from the EARC, but whetted their appetites for top-level racing at the Windermere Crew Classic, where the Badgers raced respectably well against Stanford, Cal and top-ranked Washington. Early season brute force isn't always an indicator of late season speed, but history tells us never to treat Wisco lightly in May.
Following these five crews it's Syracuse, Cornell and Navy at 6-7-8, who also finished in that order at the Goes Cup race on April 20th (Navy was awarded 2nd in that race when Cornell was disqualified).
In the JV, Brown is undefeated and legit; though margins typically tend to tighten over the course of a long season, Brown has dominated, putting 12 seconds on the second-ranked Harvard 2V to open the season, and 20 seconds on Princeton. Wisco is the darkhorse at #3, and may shoot the gap between Brown and Harvard, while Cornell, Penn, Syracuse and Yale will all be looking for spots in the final.
Harvard's frosh are undefeated, as are their V8 counterparts, but have been living a great deal more dangerously: the Crimson frosh beat Brown by just over a second to open the season, and beat #3 Northeastern by just over a second to close the season four weekends later. Brown, save for the loss to Harvard, has run the table, while NU has lost only to the two crews ranked ahead of them.
The F8 is tight this year, with Cornell, Princeton, Columbia and BU all on the premises. Cornell gets the nod at #4 due to a strong regular season and a 2/10s of a second win over Princeton, while the Columbia frosh have raced well all season, with a win over Penn and Yale at the Blackwell Cup one of their highlights. Wisconsin, at #8, may have a shot at the final, but would need a heckuva good race to make it...they race Princeton and Brown in the heat with only two to advance.
Harvard is tops in both the 3V (Brown and Wisco behind them there), and 2F (with BU and Penn to place and show).
As was the case last year, there will be two Fours events on the course during the AM racing: the 3V/2F lightweight fours go at 8:48 AM, while the 3V/2F heavy fours race at 9:00 AM. With a fair number of schools racing fours over the course of the spring season, it's nice to see those oarsmen get a shot at Sprints as well.
On paper, it's Harvard's show this weekend, although the Yale and Brown varsities will make the championship racing hugely interesting; this ought to be a great one.
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