The Cornell crews had disappointing results this past weekend against tough Ivy foes. The lightweight men’s team lost to Columbia, the women’s crew was defeated by Brown and Columbia, and the heavyweight men were overpowered by Princeton and Yale.
The lightweight men’s crew took second place behind Columbia in the Geiger Cup held in Pelham, N.Y., at the very early hour of 6:15 a.m. with a launch time of 5:40 a.m. Racing in a cross-wind, the Red lost to the Lions by only 2.5 seconds and beat Delaware to the line by 15.5 seconds in the first varsity boat race.
“They got into the body of the race, Columbia was ahead. They had good poise, they didn’t panic, they just kept doing their jobs and they were able to get up to almost even,” head coach Todd Kennett said. “The problem is that we never took the lead and that troubles me a little bit. I think we will probably be working on that a lot this week.”
The second varsity boat overpowered Columbia and Delaware to cross the line 13 seconds in front of the Lions.
“They went fast. They beat Columbia and Delaware pretty handily,” Kennett said. “I think there is a really solid base of talent in that boat and I am not sure that I have all the right guys in the right boat so maybe a couple of guys in JV should really be in varsity.”
The freshman eight and four took second place after the Columbia in two extremely tight races, losing by an average of two seconds.
“I don’t think any of our boats panicked,” Kennett said. “They all went out and stayed relaxed despite having pretty bad starts due to the cross-chop and that is not something we suspected the night before, so I thought they handled that part really well. Then they got into the body of the race and got themselves back up to even or almost even and I think that shows a lot of poise.”
The heavyweight men competed against Princeton and Yale at home this weekend, placing third overall. Princeton won the day, beating out the competition in all three races.
“I think it was a vast improvement over last weekend,” head coach Dan Roock said. “It’s disappointing that we lost because I was hoping that we could be a little bit more competitive but it was a huge step forward for us, and so as much as I ought to be disappointed by losing, I’m actually pretty pleased.”
In the first varsity race, the Tigers beat the Red to the line by 10 seconds with a time of 5:36.0 and the Bulldogs followed four seconds later for a final time of 5:40.8.
The second varsity race was extremely close with Princeton pulling out a victory from Yale by only .1 of a second. The Red followed 11 seconds behind the other two crews.
“I think the race showed some weaknesses that we need to work on, maybe the capacity to row at a higher rating and to continue with an effective motion when fatigued because in a race you are always going to get tired,” Roock said. “We need to reduce the effect of fatigue on our boat speed.”
In the novice eight, Cornell took second place after Princeton, crossing the line six seconds behind the Tigers and four seconds in front of the Bulldogs.
“This is still such a young group, and every time out we just are able to achieve a little more. I think it was a real commitment by the group to increase our capacity from a week ago,” Roock said.
Both varsity eights for the women’s crew were overwhelmed by Brown and Columbia. The first varsity boat crossed the line 15 seconds behind the Bears and 10 seconds behind the Lions.
The Bears took all five races of the day with open water finishes against the Lions and the Red in four races, excluding the first varsity race.
The second varsity eight was defeated by Brown and Columbia, with Brown crossing the line almost 30 seconds in front of the Red. Cornell took second in the first novice boat and third in the second novice boat.
Archived article by Catherine Bourque
Sun Staff Writer