The men’s crew teams dominated the waters of Cayuga Lake this weekend against competition from Ithaca College, Marist, and Michigan. The heavyweight squad faced off against Marist and Michigan, racing three varsity boats and two freshman boats. The Red swept four of the five races, with Michigan coming in second and Marist third in each contest. The only exception was the third varsity boat face-off, a close race in which Michigan edged the Red by less than one second.
“We were really excited,” said senior captain Chris Bender. “The results were really encouraging.” This weekend’s competition was the first race of the spring season for the heavyweight team. The team came into the weekend a little rusty because of its limited practice time on the water in recent weeks.
“They were tough competition, but a good warm up,” Bender said. “They weren’t a pushover, but it was a good way to start off the season.
“We haven’t been on water in so long it was good we didn’t have the hardest races of the season this weekend.”
The heavyweight team will be back in action next week versus Georgetown.
The lightweight squad enjoyed even greater success, winning all five of its races against Ithaca College and Marist.
“We were excited,” said senior Drew Tennant. “We were confident going in and it was reassuring to get through it and show we have a good base this early in the season.”
The Red won the first varsity race by a margin of three seconds, and continued to dominate for the rest of the day. Ithaca College took second and Marist third in each of the day’s contests.
The lightweight squad also raced three varsity boats and two freshman boats.
“It was a good early season race,” said Tennant. “Marist and Ithaca are not as strong as Harvard and Penn. The general strength of our program is better.
“We’ll have to step it up to another level versus Penn.”
The freshman lightweight boats had the most dominating performance of the day, as the Red won both races by a margin of nine seconds.
The lightweight team will have a weekend off from racing before facing Penn on April 10.
Archived article by Olivia Dwyer