Low waters on Cayuga Inlet certainly was not a problem for the lightweight crew this past weekend. With the recent heavy rains, the men found themselves racing a modified course, as they hosted Boston College yesterday in a race-off competition.
With flood-like water conditions, both teams raced an 1150-meter piece twice instead of the usual 2000-meter course. Despite the change, the lightweights swept the day’s events, coming in first in both contests. However, the victories will not be counted towards the Red’s overall record, because the crews did not race an official course.
“The lanes were pretty unfair,” said head coach Todd Kennett. “It wouldn’t have been fair to race because of the high water, so we did some pieces together, and it was almost like a scrimmage setting.”
The times calculated in each event were only estimated due to the floating start used by each crew to begin the event.
The varsity crew came in first in both of its 1150-meter events over the Eagles by more than one boat length. The junior varsity crew added two more victories, coming in one-half of a boat length ahead of Boston College.
“This race was meant to get ourselves into the boat and produce some speed,” Kennett said. “We have a few small things to change overall. I might move one or two guys up from junior varsity to varsity.”
In the last events of the contest, Cornell’s freshman boat finished off a Red sweep of the competition by crossing the line first in both race-offs.
“I was quite impressed, especially with the freshman performance,” Kennet said.
The heavyweight rowers also found themselves dealing with heavy rains and winds as they took on Georgetown at Lake Carnegie. The varsity boat posted a victory with a time of 5:46.5, nearly four seconds ahead of the Hoyas.
Cornell’s junior varsity and 3V boats dominating their events by crossing the line almost 20 seconds before Georgetown in 6:02.1 and 6:05.4, respectively.
Georgetown claimed only two victories on the day, taking the varsity four and freshman boat, but the Red’s second freshman boat came back to post another first-place finish.
While the men’s teams had to deal with the heavy rains, the women were greeted by clear skies in Saturday’s race against Syracuse and host Yale. Overall, the women found mixed results at the regatta.
The varsity women opened with a third-place finish, just behind Yale and Syracuse. The women finished the course in 6:18.0. The second varsity crew claimed a second-place finish ahead of Syracuse in 6:26.8.
“I think we had a strong performance,” said senior co-captain Sarah Greer. “It’s a good starting place, and we know what we need to do for the rest of the season.”
Yale pulled out another victory in the varsity four race, with the Red coming in second, almost four seconds ahead of Syracuse.
The novice crews proved to be most successful at the regatta, claiming first in both the novice eight and the second novice four. The novice eight finished in 6:19.3 with Yale and Syracuse following in 6:21.7 and 6:26.6, respectively.
The Cornell second novice four rowed to a decisive victory, crossing the line over 15 seconds ahead of second place Yale.
For their next race, the women will work on both individual components of their racing and improvement as a team.
“As a whole, I think we need to shift up to the next level of intensity,” Greer said.
Archived article by Kristina Kovach
Sun Staff Writer