The lightweight crew led the way for the Red this weekend, as the team brought home its ninth victory of the season to finish the best regular season performance ever by a Cornell lightweight crew.
The Red finished seven seconds ahead of Dartmouth in the varsity race to win the Baggeley Cup and finish the regular season with a 9-1 record. The junior varsity boat wrapped up the season with an 8-2 record.
“I was really happy with the performance,” said head coach Todd Kennett ’91. “We did as well as we could under the circumstances. Some of the guys were sick and it’s a long ride to Dartmouth.”
Cornell swept the regatta, winning all five races. The closest race was the second varsity four, in which the Red crossed the line just one tenth of a second ahead of the Green.
“It was not the prettiest race ever,” Kennett said. “But it was a good race, and they did their jobs.”
The No. 3 Red will have two weeks off until Eastern Sprints, followed three weeks later by the national championship race.
“Our goal is to go after those two races,” Kennett said. “We need a foundation and I think we have that. It’s all just fine-tuning from now on.”
The women’s crew also had a successful day against Dartmouth, winning the Parent’s Cup by coming in first in all six races.
“It’s always good when you win them all,” said head coach Melanie Onufrieff. “They all did their jobs.”
The Red finished the varsity eight race in 6:36.2, coming in five seconds ahead of the Green to bring home the regatta’s trophy.
“They are good competitors,” Onufrieff said. “They’re always ready to go against us. When you have a day like that you’re pretty psyched. Especially the second varsity, they had their best race of the year.”
The Red won all three eight races, as well as the two varsity four races and one novice four race. The closest race of the day was the novice four race, which the Red won by a margin of three seconds.
The men’s heavyweight crew traveled to New Jersey to face Rutgers and came home with the Smith Cup.
The Red beat Rutgers in all four races, but fell to Oregon State in the varsity eight race. Oregon State was a guest crew at the regatta as part of an annual trip to face east coast competition.
“[Oregon State] is definitely a wild card crew,” said head coach Dan Roock. “But they’re a pretty good crew. I was pleased, it was a good effort.”
Rutgers never got closer than six seconds in any of the races, but Roock still felt the Red faced good competition in its last race before Eastern Sprints and national championships.
“The margin between us and Rutgers was great,” he said. “Oregon was a good thing, they remind us and kind of foreshadowed what’s coming in the next few weeks.”
The teams had good conditions on the water, facing a headwind for the first time all season.
“I’m really happy the crew raced in a headwind,” Roock said. “Now they’ll have that background going into Eastern Sprints. You can’t get much fitter, but you can get better prepared.”
Archived article by Olivia Dwyer
Sun Staff Writer