In a battle between the No. 1 and No. 2 men’s lightweight teams, the top-rated boat demonstrated why it deserves its ranking.
Cornell downed Princeton on Cayuga Lake on Saturday when the Red took three of the four races. Cornell’s Fourth Varsity Eight was the lone boat to fall to the Tigers, clocking in at 6:14 and losing by a margin of 3.5 seconds. The other three races were decided by 2.6, 0.8 and 4.4 seconds for the first through third boats, respectively.
Every boat, save for the Fourth Varsity Eight, finished in under six minutes.
Sunday’s victory marked the fourth straight meeting in which the Platt Cup went to Cornell when the regatta has taken place in Ithaca; the Red has claimed six of the last eight Cups.
Though this marked only the second regatta of the spring, the team faced Princeton men’s lightweight in the fall in New Jersey, where it took home the gold medal in the Princeton Chase. There, the team boasted three top-eight finishes over a myriad of competitors.
Cornell’s 3-1 takedown of Princeton was the lightweight team’s second victory of the spring season after beating both Penn and Harvard on April 6. As the team’s national rank now sits at No. 1, the Red will need to continue its dominant ways and maintain the pace it has set so early on for the remainder of the season.
Cornell will take to the water again on April 20 to host MIT and Columbia in pursuit of the Geiger Cup. The regatta will take place in Ithaca.