The biggest rowing event in North America returns with a post-Olympic field that is sure to excite. Alongside the normal contingent of top US collegiate programmes, there are several exciting entries from around the world with Olympic talent including a rare showdown between top eights from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, six months out from the Boat Race. With all this talent and an unforgiving course like the Charles, a winner could come from anywhere.
Harvard University
In what might have been a down year for Harvard University, the 2024 season was possibly the best of Charley Butt’s tenure with the heavyweight squad. They collected silver medals at the IRA National Championships and Eastern Sprints before claiming their first win in the Harvard-Yale race in a decade. That season began at this event on their home water, as they would finish second only to the US National Team, claiming the collegiate crown on their home water. This year, they return all but two of their varsity eight to the team and hope to build on that foundation with their young crew and another strong performance. On home water, a strong showing will suggest they are well on their way.
University of Washington
Returning after sweeping the heavyweight events at the IRA Championships in June, the University of Washington will begin their season at the Head of the Charles. A programme with storied history and tradition, the Huskies have won 20 national championships and were the most recent collegiate team to win this event but finished only eighth on the Charles twelve months ago. This may be due to selection for the event being based on a pairs race, which last year meant that only three of the eventual IRA crew raced in the top boat in Boston. However, with six of their crew returning and reinforcements coming from the country’s best second and third eights last year, they may be back in the mix this time.
Koven Training Center
The most interesting crew in the entry, racing under the banner of Koven Training Center, is a crew of eight former Olympians from four different countries. In the stern four of the provisional lineup are the headliners. At stern are the triple Olympic champions of Valent and Martin Sincovic, who won gold in the pair in Tokyo, sneaking past the British pair of Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith, who will be the five-six seats for this colossal lineup. The bow four were not in Paris. Instead, these former Olympians raced across various games, from Atlanta in 1996 to Rio in 2016. What unites this foursome is their employer: a US-based private equity firm. Steering the crew is Northeastern assistant Jimmy Catalano who makes up for his lack of Olympic pedigree by having won this event in the last two years with the US national team. Whether this crew can continue that streak remains to be seen. The bow four set the fastest time in the more corporately inclined Director’s Challenge Quads 12 months ago, but the question is whether they can offer enough to help four of the world’s best to the top of the timesheets.
Princeton University
The Spring season for Princeton University was historic but disappointing for the Tigers. In the regular season, they competed in a stacked slate of the best programmes the East Coast had to offer and came out unscathed as their first and second varsity eights went undefeated for the first time in school history. However, in the championship multi-lane racing, they could not continue that run. At the Eastern Sprints, a late charge from Brown pipped them to the post, leaving them in silver, while at the IRA Championship, a sluggish start left them off the podium in fourth with open water between them and the medals. The season did not end there as the crew travelled across the Atlantic to Henley Royal Regatta, where their top eight won The Ladies’ Challenge Plate and the second crew made it to the final in The Temple Challenge Cup. With five returners from their top crew, they will want to show a strong performance and starting second on the river will help them demonstrate something close to their true speed.
Yale University
After transitioning from long-serving head coach Steve Gladstone to Mike Gennaro, the 2024 season was tough for the Yale Bulldogs as they put together their worst string of results in a decade. The run of seven successive Eastern Sprints victories ended, they had their worst showing at the IRA Championship since 2015 and lost the Harvard-Yale race for the first time since 2014. Further down the boathouse, there was not too much positive spin either. The second and third eights had historically poor performances, missing the Grand final at the national championship but getting the better of their Harvard counterparts in the annual match-up. It is not all doom and gloom for the men from New Haven, though, as they return seven rowers from their varsity eight from last year, including Great Britain’s three-time U23 world champion Harry Geffen, who will look to lead this experienced unit back to the kind of results that the Bulldogs have become accustomed to.
Leander Club
For the third year in succession, Leander Club will travel across the Atlantic to compete in this event at the Head of the Charles. In their previous journeys, they have been towards the front of the field, but with a fifth and fourth-placed finish, they have yet to secure a medal in the blue ribband event. This year, Leander has already managed an overseas victory as the GB Rowing Team entry, who reigned supreme at the Head of Shanghai River Regatta, comprised nine athletes from the Pink Palace. That crew was made up of athletes based in Henley last season, but with the potential for members who were at Caversham to race in the iconic pink this time around, they may be able to take the step forward and overcome their Collegiate rivals to claim a medal in Boston.
University of Cambridge
With the race starting inside the city limits of Cambridge, Massachusetts, there is a touch of home water for the Light Blues who make their first trip to this event since 2019. This year, like five years ago, they have two crews entered into the event, giving us the first showing of the top 16 athletes in the boathouse. In a post-Olympic season, there is an expectation that there will be some elite international competition in the Blue Boats. The particulars of this remain very close to the chests of their respective coaches, but the biggest name to publicly announce their arrival in Cambridge is George Bourne, silver medallist at the 2022 World Rowing Championships and GB single sculler for 2024. If they have been able to add a few more names of this calibre or greater as the rumour mill suggests, they could be in contention to replicate their result in 2004, when they became the first overseas crew ever to win this event.
University of Oxford
The traditional rivals in Dark Blue, Oxford University, will bring their men’s eight to this event for the first time since 2010, setting up the first-ever meeting of the men’s Boat Race crews on the Charles. In the first season under new head coach Mark Fangen-Hall, the Dark Blues will be seeking to break the momentum on the Thames as they have lost five of the last six races, including the last two consecutive meetings of the two crews. However, the one win in that period came off the back of solid recruiting after the Tokyo Olympic Games, and they put together a strong crew again this year. Prominent in their recruiting class is Tom Mackintosh, winner of a gold medal in the eight in Tokyo and a fourth-placed finish in the single in Paris, who will serve as President in just his first season in Dark Blue. With the rumoured addition of plenty more big names to the Flemming boathouse, this crew will be looking to beat Cambridge and have the talent up and down the boat to claim the headship.
A.A.S.R. Skøll
The foremost of the Dutch entries is A.A.S.R. Skøll. The Amsterdam-based student rowing association are bringing an impressive crew to this event, with some of the top names in Dutch rowing in the provisional lineup. The crew is stroked by Lennart van Lierop, a member of the quad that won gold in Paris, alongside two members of the eight that won silver. Guillaume Krommenhoek was named as a spare for Paris but already has two World Rowing Championship silvers as well as an elite victory at Henley Royal Regatta in his young career, while the remainder of the crew made their international debut at the Poznan World Rowing Cup either as part of the “Talent TeamNL” programme or in the in-house quad that also reached the final in The Prince of Wales Challenge Cup. Seeded fifth despite not having competed in this event last year, this crew has the pedigree to push for the gold medal this weekend and will be flying the flag high for the Dutch contingent.
Prediction
With a strong crew and a clean run on their home water, I think that Harvard should be able to defend their crown as the top US university in this field, but with such depth of Olympic talent in the field, they will not be able to become the first Ivy to win the overall event since 2015. Instead, I think the top three will come from Skøll, Koven and Oxford, in that order.
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