The Cornell women’s rowing team lost the chase for this year’s Cayuga Cup to Yale on Saturday. Ever since 2003, when Cornell created the Cayuga Cup for the winner of the Varsity eight race, these two squads have fought hard for the title. Yale (No. 10) ultimately dominated Cornell (No. 18) in four of five races to reclaim the Cup for the first time since 2010.Cornell’s varsity eight crossed the finish line with a time of 7:08.5, trailing Yale’s 7:03.6 finish. The Red’s second varsity eight, varsity four, and varsity 4 B all fell in its races by a large margin of nearly 10 seconds each. Cornell’s third varsity eight, however, crossed the finish line with an impressive time of 7:35.3, while Yale’s squad brought up the rear with a 7:41.5 finish.The Red’s loss to Yale was especially disappointing coming from such a successful 2012 season. Cornell won its first-ever Cayuga Cup in 2011 and came back in 2012 to steal the cup from the bulldogs again in back-to-back victories. Cornell was also a NCAA Championship participant last year.Nevertheless, the Red has a lot of potential and will not let the loss to Yale give way to waning morale among the squad. Rather, the Red is taking the loss and channeling it into positive energy as the crew gears up for the Class of ’75 Cup this weekend and aims to conquer tough opponents Princeton and Radcliffe.“We know we’re capable of a lot more than last weekend’s results against Yale. A new fire has been sparked on the team now, though,” freshman Anna Kastenberg said. “We’re using this week to build off what we learned last weekend, train even harder, and focus on beating Princeton and Radcliffe.”The rest of the squad echoes Kastenberg’s sentiments and plans to work even harder to improve and hopefully reap the benefits as the season pans out.“We are using the Cayuga Cup as motivation to win this weekend. We have a lot of raw power and are just working on figuring out the best way to be effective with it in the boat,” freshman Theodora Misthos said. “All of us are staying positive and working diligently to be the fastest crew out there on race day, so it’s all very exciting.”The Red will welcome Radcliffe and Princeton to the Cayuga Lake Inlet this Saturday at 8:30 a.m. to battle for the Class of ’75 Cup.
Original Author: Sydney Altschuler