Over the weekend, the men’s and women’s rowing teams closed out the fall portion of their season in commanding fashion –– winning five-of-seven races despite a persistent rain and strong headwinds that plagued Syracuse’s Onondaga Lake.

“The conditions [were] absolutely miserable, but that’s one of the things ... where you can complain about it, and if you complain about it you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage,” said heavyweight rowing head coach Todd Kennett. “Everybody’s going to have to race in it; it’s an outdoor sport, suck it up and deal with it, and go out to win a race. Because if you don’t, you’re not going to win. You have to take what you want to get, and if you don’t push like that, you won’t get it.”

The rowing teams hit the water in full force this weekend, sending 34 boats to the Princeton Chase on Sunday. The Red put up an overall solid performance at the three-mile race on Lake Carnegie in New Jersey –– recording 15 top-10 results, including five finishes of sixth or better.

Both men’s rowing teams were well-represented at the race, yet it was the men’s heavyweight team that had arguably the best showing at the regatta. The heavyweight team sent 10 boats to New Jersey and placed half of them in the top-10, including two in the top-5.

Every Cornell rower hit the water on Saturday morning at the annual Schwartz Cup, one of the many reasons that the tradition is so special to the rowing program.

On the women’s side, the junior/senior lineup won the race. The lightweight men’s race was taken by the sophomore crew, flashing its potential for the future. In the heavyweight race, the seniors took advantage of their experience to claim the win. The Schwartz Cup awarded for best skit went to the sophomore heavyweights for their parody of the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. The wolf was played by sophomore Jim Voter, imitating heavyweight coach Todd Kennett ’91. The event, however, is as much about the tradition as it is the competition.

All three rowing teams had successful weekends, as the Red was able to overpower its opponents in most events.

The heavyweight crew won the Goes Trophy by trouncing Syracuse and Army on Onondaga Lake in the all-important varsity-8 race. The Red also picked up the Stagg Cup for winning four of the five races held on the lake.

The heavyweights have been dominant in the last two weekends. Saturday marked the first time that the Red had lost a race since the fall season. However, the team will have a much tougher test next weekend as it returns to Ithaca for a head-to-head matchup with Princeton and Yale.

No team ever enters a competition without the intention of winning. Often, however, a non-victory can provide a lot more information about the team’s standing and help to narrow the focus of upcoming training. This weekend was an informative one for all of the Cornell rowing teams, as the men’s varsity heavyweight eight took fourth, the men’s lightweight eight fifth, and the women’s eight 17th at the Princeton Chase regatta.

The heavyweight eight’s fourth-place finish was out of a forty-team field and only 10 seconds behind winner Yale.

The rowing teams are preparing for a calmer weekend than last weekend as they head to New Jersey for Sunday’s Princeton Chase regatta. Coming away from the hectic Head of the Charles with mixed results, the teams hope for an improvement in both the weather and the performances.

For the heavyweight men, fellow Ivy League crews will provide some of the toughest competition. The Red finished only one second ahead of Yale and 10 seconds ahead of Princeton this past weekend.

“At the Charles we came in first out of the boats that we are racing [this] weekend,” said senior coxswain Jimmy Germano. “We are hoping to build off the Charles and win the Chase, which is something we haven’t done in a long time.”

Usually, team traditions are carried out because they are simply that: traditions. Sometimes a modern amendment to the tradition may be long overdue, and other times it represents something better than simply an inherited occurrence. For the Cornell rowing program, the annual Schwartz Cup is one of those golden rituals that make the fall crew season shine.

Every autumn, Cornell rowing enthusiasts Dick and Jean Schwartz fund a crew race on the Cayuga Inlet. But unlike typical regattas, only Cornell crews compete. And unlike typical competitions, the rowers must perform both on and off the water, by class and against alumni. The day begins at the Collyer Boathouse with a skit performance and finishes with a 5,000 meter head race out onto Cayuga Lake.

The Cornell rowing teams will join over 8,000 athletes and more than 300,000 spectators at the annual Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston this weekend. One of the largest crew races in the world, the racing spans two days and attracts international competition. Each of the Cornell men’s and women’s crews will send its top rowers to compete with a different strategy.

The lightweight men will compete for the first time under the direction of head lightweight coach Chris Kerber. The three-time defending national champions will try to pick fellow Ivy League competitors out of the crowd.

Deckhead:

Weeks before first spring race, coach replaced

Body:

Assuming the inclement and frigid weather clears up, the women’s rowing team will race Princeton and Radcliffe tomorrow in the crew’s second event of the spring season. However, for the past month, the squad has been dealing with a far greater challenge than any presented on the water or by the weather: the sudden loss of its head coach.