It was not "Oxford Blues" and the team had a hard time finding words to describe the experience, but the varsity men's lightweight crew team said their trip to England is something that will linger in their minds for a long time.
During the trip, at Henley-On-Thames, Dartmouth avenged a 0.6-second loss to Princeton University in the Eastern Sprints by defeating them by open water in the Marlow Regatta.
The win gave Dartmouth a 3-2 record against the their archrivals this year.
Dartmouth was geared up to make it two in a row by meeting Princeton in the Henley Royal Regatta a few days later.
In an interview yesterday, team members spoke of their excitement before the quarter-final race. But they had to beat Goldie, a crew from Cambridge University, England first and they trained for it.
"I was running along side the boat when we were practice-racing the U.S. national team," said Marshal Bush '96, a substitute for the team, of the days leading up to the big race. "It was neat because the national team's coaches were riding bikes along side their boat and I just kept on getting farther and farther ahead of them."
Dartmouth knew they were getting faster and they were confident berfore the quarter-final race. But when Goldie and Dartmouth crossed the finish line, those dreams were cut short.
"We were all going for that race because we could have met Princeton," rower Chris White '96 said. "It was pretty tough to lose."
Chris Schmidt '96 said, "That's what hurt the most -- not being able to race Princeton."
Princeton lost to Goldie a few hours later in the semifinal race by a larger margin than the English crew had beaten Dartmouth, White said.
"Goldie went a little slower at the end -- they cruised in," White added with a smile on his face.
The experience and the trip to England were not soured by the fact that they did not meet Princeton, team members said. They said the taste of victory over Princeton at the Marlow race was sweet enough.
Bush, Schmidt and White said many of the English teams were surprised at "our small size."
At Henley, lightweight and heavyweight crews compete against each other. Traditionally, the heavyweight crews are faster than their lighter competition.
White said the St. Andrew's crew team said to them after they lost to Dartmouth, "You guys are so small. We are so much bigger than you."
"It was a nice feeling just to walk away from them ... and all of the crowd knew too," he added.
Bush said the crowds of thousands began to recognize the "dark green boat from the United States."
White said the boat was gaining speed during the two-and-a-half weeks they were in England.
"Things just started clicking," he said. "It was a nice environment to be rowing in. We had the advantage of getting a lot of rowing time. We had our coach in the boat for a week-and-a-half."
Schmidt said he remembers the crowd cheering for Dartmouth at Marlow when the team beat Princeton "easily."
When asked to sum it up, Bush said "it was the perfect mix of camaraderie and racing" after a two-minute pause. Schmidt and White smiled.
"It was representative of our season," Schmidt added.
