October 28, 2003

Heavyweights Round Out Top Five at Chase

Print More

The Cornell crews must be relieved following Sunday’s performance at the Princeton Chase. One week after failing to qualify for next year’s Head of the Charles at this season’s edition of the venerable race, the Red returned to top form in New Jersey, posting some of the best times of the fall.

“It was a great race,” said senior commodore Chris Bender. “We took second and fourth in the eight’s and they were four seconds apart. That means we have a lot of really good depth.”

After breaking from the first position, the Cornell “A” boat took an early lead in the three-mile race. Princeton’s “A” caught up and raced even with the Red for a long portion of the race before taking a short lead. However, unlike in last week’s Head of the Charles, Cornell was able to stick with the Tigers’ boat until the very last leg of the race, when the Tigers surged out in front to win by a 20-second margin.

The Cornell “B” eight started 12th and came all the way back to finish in fourth place, under one second behind second-place Navy.

In the heavyweight four, Cornell’s “A” boat placed second, four seconds behind the leader, Princeton “A.” Cornell “B” placed sixth overall.

“That was a great performance,” said Bender. “We were just more prepared to go ahead and race [as compared to the Head of the Charles.] We knew what we had to do and we went out and executed.”

The men’s lightweight crew enjoyed similar success, placing fourth in the eight, trailing only Princeton, Harvard, and Navy.

“The level of performance that came through was excellent having only three seniors participate,” said lightweights’ head coach Todd Kennett ’91.

The lightweight four placed sixth, only four tenths of a second behind fifth-place Navy and withing eight seconds of fourth-place Princeton “B.” Both the lightweight eight and four posted vast improvements over last week’s Head of the Charles performances as well.

“We were much more solid this week,” said Kennett. “Guys lived up to their potential.”

The women’s crew also preformed strongly in the open eight. The Cornell “A” and “B” boats finished with in one second of each other, placing ninth and10th, respectively.

In the open four, the Cornell women’s “B” placed 12th.

Archived article by Owen Bochner