Spring Schedule Announced for Harvard Men’s Lights
The defending national champion Harvard Crimson men’s lightweight rowing team has announced a spring slate of seven regattas beginning with a double-header on Saturday, April 5, 2025.
On the morning of April 5, the team will go up against Cornell and Penn In Philadelphia. The crews will head to Leonia, New Jersey, to face Columbia and Georgetown in the afternoon at the Wales-Kirrane Cup.
“We are pretty excited about our spring schedule this year because one race that got discontinued is coming back—the Wales-Kirrane Cup with Columbia and Georgetown,” said Billy Boyce, Friends of Harvard Lightweight Rowing Coach for Men’s Lightweight Crew, The James Herscot ’58 Coach of Excellence. “There is potentially a new cup between Cornell and Penn. We had traditionally been guests in that race. It was between just Cornell and Penn and we’re always the guest so we couldn’t win a cup in that race. There may now be a cup that includes all three schools. In three years time that would bring that race to Boston which would be really exciting.”
In the fall of 2024, the Crimson achieved their third first-place finish in the men’s lightweight eight at the Head of the Charles with a time of 14:09. The second-place finisher, Cornel, came in nine seconds later with a time of 14:18.
“The lightweight league is always very exciting,” remarked Boyce. “Anybody could be competitive any year. What happened in the fall is not any indicator of what will or can happen in the spring. I don’t think we’re thinking of any one school as our main competitor, we just know the speed we want to go and we’re remanning internally competitive. We keep our own standard and keep ourselves accountable to avoid complacency. Our biggest opponent is ourselves. We can’t come second place to ourselves.”
The season will culminate ate the IRA National Championships on May 30-June 1, 2025. Last year the Crimson won national titles in the men’s lightweights first and second varsity eights.
“A lot of those guys have returned,” said Boyce. “That crew was pretty young. We’re looking to make sure that nobody runs back what they did the year before but whatever they were doing well, double down on and take to the next level. Areas where we know we can find more speed—we uncover those and optimize. We feel like we have a pretty good system and culture set up, but there’s always places where we can make something just a little bit better.”
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