Harvard looks to extend regatta win streak with young crew

Ledyard - Harry Parker has been coaching Harvard crew for 48 seasons, meaning he can speak in such generalities.

This week, asked when was the last time the Crimson had five sophomores in their varsity eight, Parker replied: "Nineteen sixty-three."

Coming off a win at the Eastern Sprints, Harvard will switch to the marathon of regattas Saturday, going four miles against Ivy League rival Yale in the 145th Yale-Harvard regatta beginning at 10:45 a.m., upstream on the Thames River.

The two-mile freshman race begins at 9 a.m. and the three-mile junior varsity race at 9:45, with all races finishing at Bartlett's Cove.

Parker, asked to make an opening statement about his team during a news conference this week, chose to speak about his sophomores. Harvard has a two-race winning streak against Yale and has won nine of the last 10 in the series. The last Yale win came in 2007.

"We thought they had the potential to make a solid contribution," Parker said of the Class of 2012. "They've surpassed my expectations. They've worked hard. They're quite committed. As a result, our boat seems to be pretty fast."

Harvard captain Blake Pucsek said the sophomores on the team are close.

"If you push one of them … if you hit one, you get five," Pucsek said, adding that the younger rowers have needed only a few "nudges here and there."

"They've been pretty self-motivated and pretty good."

One of the five is Michael DiSanto of Boston, who rows in the No. 3 seat. DiSanto took a few of his teammates, who hail from England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, on a pop culture tour of Boston recently, including South Boston, which the other athletes know from the movie "Good Will Hunting."

DiSanto said the sophomores sometimes turn things around on the seniors - Pucsek and coxswain Kelly Evans.

"We call Blake our pledge," DiSanto said with a laugh.

DiSanto calls the fact all five sophomores are on the varsity boat after rowing together on the freshman team last year, "pretty awesome."

"We're a pretty close bunch of guys," he said. "To see one of those guys on another boat …"

The Harvard team consists of Evans at coxswain, followed by sophomore Patrick Lapage at stroke, sophomore Matt Edstein, sophomore Nick Jordan, junior David Wakulich, sophomore Sam O'Connor, DiSanto, junior Anthony Locke and Pucsek in the bow.

Yale has senior coxswain Rebecca Burgoyne-Allen, followed by sophomore stroke Benjamin Bowles, freshman Derek Johnson, junior Marcus Carzolio, senior Henry Cole, sophomore Thomas Dethlefs, junior Matthew Ramlow, senior captain Lucas Spielfogel and junior Alex Mastroyannis in the bow.

Both teams have only one loss, to Brown, during the dual season.

While Harvard excelled at the Eastern Sprints, though, Yale, seeded third, failed to make the grand final and finished 11th overall.

Yale coach John Pescatore said it wasn't easy to push the feeling of doing poorly at the sprints to the back burner to get ready for this race, but believes his team has done it. The Bulldogs traded seats between Cole and Johnson following the sprints.

Mastroyannis agrees with Pescatore.

"We led our heat (at the sprints) the whole way down. We lost it in the last 10 strokes maybe," he said. "Then the petite final didn't go well. But we still have complete faith in each other. I don't see us as underdogs at all. This is the fastest crew I've ever been a part of."

Parker called Harvard's race at the Eastern Sprints "exceptional," but cautioned it might be tough to put that kind of race together twice in a row.

"To get back to that would be an incredible accomplishment," he said.

v.fulkerson@theday.com