After losing its No. 1 rank following losses to then-No.4 Princeton and then-No .2 Yale, the No. 4 men’s lightweight rowing team bounced back this weekend and swept its varsity races to win the Greiger Cup over Columbia and MIT. The heavyweight team was successful as well, bringing home the Howard Smith Cup. The women raced at home Friday, but failed to win the Dunn Bowl.
“We’re pretty satisfied,” said senior William Boyce. “We shuffled our lineup a lot coming into the race and we’re happy with the way it turned out.”
The two-time IRA defending National champion showed its full potential over strong Columbia and MIT crews. The Red swept its three varsity races and in total won four of the five races it competed in, including a three-second victory by the varsity-8 boat over Columbia.
In the second varsity-8 race, both the second and third varsity-8 boats finished ahead of Columbia. The second varsity-8 boat claimed victory by more than nine seconds.
Cornell’s first and second varsity-4 boats also took the top-2 spots in the varsity-4 race. The Red’s first varsity-4 boat defeated MIT by an impressive 26.4 seconds.
The lightweight team will travel to Dartmouth next weekend for its last regular season meet, and its final tune-up before its two postseason events, the EARC Championship and the IRA Regatta.
“Next week, we’re focusing on Dartmouth, but after that we’re looking forward to Sprints and IRAs,” Boyce said.
The No. 13 men’s heavyweight rowing team also had a strong weekend as the first varsity-8 boat finished second to No. 5 Princeton, but defeated No. 7 Yale in the Carnegie Cup. The team also traveled to New Brunswick the following day and defeated Rutgers.
“Overall, we had a really good showing,” said senior Rob McCormick. “[It was] a huge step in the right direction. That’s our first time beating Yale this season.”
In the first varsity race, the Red finished behind Princeton by a mere 3.3 seconds and came in ahead of Yale by 1.7 seconds.
The second and third varsity boats were both victorious over Princeton and Yale in their respective races.
The second varsity race saw the Red claim victory by 3.7 seconds over Princeton, while the Red claimed victory in the third varsity race over Yale by 6.8 seconds.
“Princeton and Yale are two of the top crews in the country,” McCormick said. “We’re satisfied with our performance this weekend and now we want to reassert our dominance in the Ivy League.”
The women’s rowing team hosted the Dunn Bowl this weekend against Brown and Columbia.
The Bears were crowned champions of the Dunn Bowl after completing an impressive sweep of all six races.
In the varsity-8 race, the Red finished third behind both Brown and Columbia. However the team only lost to Columbia by 0.1 seconds.
The Red did defeat Columbia, though, in the second varsity-8 race by a sizable 13.5-second margin.