Dana Daniels | Sun Staff Photographer

Last weekend was not the one Cornell hoped for. They look to change that in Rhode Island.

April 12, 2017

Women’s Rowing Looks to Rebound in Providence After Disappointing Weekend

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The Cornell women’s rowing team will travel to Providence, R.I. this weekend, looking to rebound from a last place finish in the the Class of ’75 Cup this past weekend.

Both the varsity eight and the second varsity eight finished in last, with Princeton taking first in both events in a 7:35.2 time. The Red’s varsity eight finished over half a minute later in 8:16.8 to wrap up the heat in Cambridge, Mass.

All teams did well to cope with a strong headwind of 15 to 18 miles per hour whipping up on the Charles, which, according to head coach Elizabeth Dennison, resulted in rough water and white caps on the race course. The poor conditions eventually forced the final three races of the day to be altered, resulting in teams rowing unofficial 1500m distances.

Dennison noted the strong performances of the second varsity eight, highlighting the improvement as a result of the work in training.

“The second varsity eight put together an aggressive and solid race, demonstrating the work and improvements we made in practice this past week over spring break,” Dennison said. “They launched a series of attacks in the second 1000m to try and close the gap but were not able to get ahead of Radcliffe or Princeton.”

Cornell has rarely fared well in the Class of ’75 Cup; the team’s last and only victory was in 1983.

The Red will now turn its focus to the race against formidable No 9. Brown and Boston University, taking place this coming Saturday in Providence.

“The coaches will be looking for continued improvement from all the crews, specifically in how we are translating our training and preparation — mental and physical — into our performance on race day,” Dennison said. “We have been able to identify areas of opportunity to improve with each race experience, and will use those moving forward to better execute and move towards our final and bigger races of the season.”

Dennison believes spring break allowed the team to improve on several weaknesses.

“We were able to get a lot accomplished as a squad, and the coaches are confident we are moving in the right direction,” she said. “We have already had a strong week of training so far this week as we prepare for our race against Brown this weekend and the Clemson Invitational the following week.”

The team will follow this race up the following weekend at the Clemson invitational, before returning to Ithaca for the Parents Invitational as the final preparation before the Ivy League Championships that will take place in mid May.