CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Belmont Hill crew head coach Chris Richards insists the formula behind a successful program is simple.

“It’s a combination of power and technique,” he said. “The boat won’t go anywhere if they don’t know how to row. It comes down to a combination of strength, fitness and the ability to work incredibly hard over distance.”

With that credo, Richards’ rowers have captured eight consecutive New England crew championships. On June 13, Belmont Hill’s first boat beat Choate Rosemary Hall by three seconds in the varsity four race at the U.S. Rowing Association’s Youth National Championships in Cincinnati, Ohio to claim the program’s fourth national title in the last seven years.

Four seniors comprised this year’s championship boat: Ian Connor, Mark Dillon, Andrew Reed and Jeff Schimmel. Helming the boat was sophomore coxswain Pranay Bose.

All four rowers have graduated and Richards knows they’ll be hard to replace.

“Of all the teams we’ve had, they might be the best,” he said.

But given Belmont Hill’s recent track record, there’s little doubt which school will enter next season the target of rival crews’ ire.

“It is going to be different though because I grew so close to those guys during the year,” said Bose, a resident of Lexington. “Because of the close relationship we had, hanging out, talking about rowing; that’s really helped me become better.

“The experience is handed down.”

Each championship crew has left the program in a little bit better standing, nudging the bar higher with each title. They also take with them a common bond.

Connor, Dillon, Reed and Schimmel are set to ship off to college in the coming weeks, each of them Ivy League-bound. They gathered for one last go-around, setting out from the Belmont Hill boathouse in Cambridge onto the Charles River. All the hours, days, years spent together came down to a final jaunt through the familiar winding waters.

“Watch them here,” Richards said. “Take it up to full speed, Pranay.”

Bose barked instructions over the loudspeaker and, on cue, the four rowers fired in unison like a fine-tuned engine shifting gear.

“It’s really a beautiful sport to watch when it’s done well,” Richards added.

The synchronicity comes through the countless hours spent honing the craft. It also started on early winter mornings when Reed and Schimmel, who both commuted to school from Wayland, would leave their homes at 5:30 a.m. to get in a workout before classes.

“There are a lot of times you didn’t want to get up,” Reed said. “But we were there pushing each other and we just wanted to be as fast as we could for the season.”

The boat returned to dock and Bose orchestrated the maneuver to return the boat to the boathouse. When it came to rest on the middle row of pegs, Dillon turned to Bose. Clasping his hand, Dillon wrapped his other arm around Bose’s shoulder and said, “I’m going to miss you man.”

One by one, they walked up to Richards, thanking him and saying their goodbyes.

“We were fortunate in the early part of the decade that we had some guys who set a high benchmark of success,” said Richards, who teaches Latin at Belmont Hill. “We’ve almost reached a stage that they don’t want to be the ones to let things go down. There’s a lot of pride.”

As much as things change, they stay the same. And when the Belmont Hill crew hits the water again next spring, they’ll still look very much the same.

“Although we try, we might not always row the prettiest,” Bose said. “But we always work the hardest.

“Rowing’s a pretty simple sport. When you have somebody on the side of you, all you have to do is pull harder. If you’re side-by-side with someone, all you have to do is will yourself to work harder than they do.”