The lightweight men’s crew raced past Princeton and Rutgers this past Saturday to win the Platt Cup hosted at Princeton. Meanwhile, the heavyweight men’s crew, competing in Syracuse, and the women’s crew, rowing in Philadelphia, did not fare as well, taking third and second in their respective races.
The lightweight men’s first and second varsity boats beat the Tigers and the Knights to the line to win the Platt Cup. Cornell’s first boat finished with a time of 5:53.6. Princeton crossed the line a little over four seconds later with a time of 5:57.0 and Rutgers came in third with a time of 5:58.3.
The Red’s second varsity eight beat out the competition with a time of 5:57.6. Cornell’s third varsity eight and novice eight finished in second place behind Princeton’s very competitive crew.
In Philadelphia, the women’s crew finished second behind Rutgers in a close race. In the first varsity boat, the Red pulled ahead of Penn after a staggered start, but failed to close the gap between its boat and Rutgers’ skull.
“I think we did a good job of getting up on Penn. Our start wasn’t the greatest, but we walked through them once we started walking,” said senior captain Alexa Olson.
The Knights won the race with a time of 7:12.9. Cornell finished only a few seats behind them with a time of 7:16.6, and the Quakers finished about three seconds after the Red.
“We only lost by a little bit, but that was even more heartbreaking in that if we could have just gotten those five strokes that were perfect, we could have gotten ahead,” Olson said.
In the second varsity boat, Cornell finished third behind both Rutgers and Penn. However, the novice eight put in a strong performance, winning its race with a time of 7:31.4 to defeat the Knights and the Quakers.
“We followed our race plan, so it is just a matter of going harder and going faster. The great thing about our sport is that we have the opportunity to see all of the crews again,” Olson said. “While we are a young crew, we are making improvements all the time and getting faster every week. We just hope to stay on that trend and catch these crews when we see them at sprints.”
The heavyweight men’s crew lost to both Syracuse and Navy in the race for the Goes Trophy held in Syracuse on Saturday. Syracuse took home the trophy with its first varsity eight crossing the line at 6:22.56. The Midshipmen came in at 6:33.94, and Cornell finished with a time of 6:40.34, about 18 seconds behind the Orange.
The second varsity eight took second place, beating out Navy with a time of 6:38.64. However, the first novice boat had a successful race, defeating both the Rams and the Orange with a time of 6:39.00. Syracuse finished with a time of 6:48.03, and Navy finished about five seconds behind them.
Archived article by Catherine Bourque
Sun Staff Writer