M. and W. Crew Look Forward to Nationals

Both men’s heavyweight and the women’s rowing teams had a chance to showcase their best stuff as they started off their spring seasons with races against No. 1 teams in the country.
Men’s heavyweight competed against the top-ranked California team and the women’s squad raced against the top-ranked Yale Bulldogs. Men’s lightweight are two-time defending national champions and are one of the best teams in the country going into the spring.
The men’s heavyweight rowing team started off their spring with an invite to the Pac-10 Invitational and used it to show the teams on the West Coast how talented the Red really is.
“The Pac-10 was a good way to prepare for our dual meets and for the rest of the season,” said men’s heavyweight captain Dan Holodnik. “We got to see the No. 1 team in the country and where we are relative to them.”
The Red raced against the No. 1 ranked Cal team as well as the very strong teams of Stanford and UCLA. The Red traded victories with Stanford and UCLA on the first day of the race but both the varsity-8 and second varsity-8 fell to Cal on the second day.
Despite losing to Cal, the Red used the event as a positive and now knows what they need to accomplish in order to be the best team in the country, which is one of their goals this season.
The heavyweight squad faced Georgetown this past weekend and swept them with all four boats. They now hope to use that momentum as they return to Ithaca to compete against Navy and Syracuse.
The men’s lightweight rowing team is going into their spring season with momentum after a solid fall term and now has their eyes set on attainting numerous goals.
“We have some lofty goals,” said men’s lightweight captain Matt Kochem. “We want to win the team points championship this season and three-peat and the national championships.”
Lightweight was off last week but they will return to action this weekend as they host Ivy League rivals Harvard and Penn in Ithaca.
Lightweight’s varsity team successfully defended its IRA National Championship title last season as it beat out the second place Harvard Crimson. Harvard is looking for revenge this weekend as the Red attempts to defend its home turf against Harvard and Penn.
The women got to start off their spring season by competing against Syracuse and the No. 1 Yale Bulldogs last weekend in the Cayuga Cup.
The Red saw some success against the Bulldogs, who won the IRA National Championship last season, with successful finishes against their novice boats, however, they also know they need some improvements in order to compete with Yale’s varsity boats.
The Red’s novice-8 and novice-4 boats both claimed victory over Yale with times of 6:30.3 and 7:34.9, respectively.
The Red’s varsity-8, second varsity-8, and varsity-4 boats all fell short of the Bulldogs with the varsity-8 coming within 9.5 seconds.
The women were successful against the Syracuse Orange as they defeated them in each race over the weekend.
The Red will now travel to Boston to compete in a dual meet against Radcliffe and Princeton.