Winter's cold has begun to give way to spring's warmth and the ice that once covered the Connecticut River now has melted away. These changes can mean only one thing- crew season is once again upon us.
After an intensive spring break training session in Tennessee, the men's heavyweight crew team is currently preparing for its first race of the year at Yale next weekend. At the same time, the lightweight team has also hit the water in preparation for its first regular season race at Tufts this Sunday.
The trip to Tennessee usually provides the heavyweight team with valuable time to hone in on its water skills in the warm southern sun after being relegated to erg machines in the gym all winter. This year, however, the Big Green had to deal with unseasonably cold weather and snow during its trip south.
Despite the bad weather, the team still managed to hold double practice sessions each day. The Big Green also participated in the Oak Ridge Regatta on March 23, which, according to Andrew Webb '96, is really "more for fun" than a serious competition.
Dartmouth entered two mixed eights in to the race. The boats included both varsity and junior varsity rowers.
"The boats were varsity and [junior varsity] thrown together. They weren't stacked," Webb said.
These two boats, while not as strategically filled as during the regular season, still managed to come in first and second overall, finishing above both Marietta College and the University of Rochester.
Back in Hanover and looking forward to the upcoming season, the team is planning on rowing the chilly Connecticut every day in order to be ready for its first race against Yale.
"This is really a huge race for us," co-Captain Tom Gilmore '96 said. "Unfortunately, Yale's been in Florida for almost a month and we've barely had two weeks on the water."
Even with this considerable disadvantage, Gilmore feels confident that if Dartmouth focuses on the race it has a strong enough team to overcome Yale's extra practice time.
"All three years that I've been here Yale has been the first race of the spring and we've lost, but then comeback to beat them later in the season. If there's ever a year when we have a strong enough team to beat them in New Haven, it's this year. We have an incredibly strong team," Gilmore said.
The first boat for this year's heavyweight team will be manned by Gilmore, along with fellow teammates Ken Deem '98, Max Holdo '96, Todd Neuman '96, Dan Perkins '97, Dan Protz '98, Brian Palm '96 and coxswain Trevor Peterson '96. One seat remains undetermined and will be decided next week.
Gilmore noted that he was particularly optimistic about this year's team. Several returning varsity rowers were bumped from the first boat because of the strength of the younger rowers this season.
This overall improvement in team strength should bode well for the men's heavyweight team as it progresses towards its ultimate goal, namely, an Eastern Sprints championship.
While the heavyweights battled the dreary weather down in Tennessee, the lightweight crew team found similar weather patterns in normally sunny Augusta, Georgia.
According to Captain Chris Schmidt '96, the spring break trip was a disappointing one for the Big Green this year as the team was unable to accomplish all that it had planned to.
While there, the team competed in the Augusta Invitational. Both the varsity and junior varsity teams rowed to a silver medal finish in the race, which was held on March 23.
The varsity crew came in behind Columbia University, while the junior varsity boat fell behind LaSalle University.
The freshmen first boat and second boat also participated in the race, earning bronze and gold medals, respectively.
Schmidt said that the team was disappointed in its results in the race, citing victories in previous years.
"We not as happy as we could be. The race down there [in Augusta]... it's not done that fairly," Schmidt said. "It's really hit or miss. It depends on the lanes."
Another reason for the team's discontent with the trip was its inability to secure seats in the boats.
"Another disappointing thing about Augusta is that we didn't get enough done to have set in stone the boats," Schmidt said.
The team is still evaluating the rowing capacity of the team members and different combinations of rowers in order to set the seating of the boats soon.
Schmidt feels the team's success this season is also still up in the air. For one, the conditions in Georgia did not allow the team to truly see its progress.
Another reason for the indecision is the team's youth as a squad. "We are a lot younger crew than in the past," Schmidt said. "I'm not sure how we are going to do. Hopefully we'll keep progressing through the season. We still have a lot of time."
While the lightweight team will travel to Boston this weekend to compete against Tufts, Schmidt called the race "more of a scrimmage."
Schmidt said the team's first big race comes in three weeks time in Boston against both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
However, for now the team must concentrate on what is ahead and cannot look too far forward in the future if it hopes to capitalize when it faces Tufts this weekend and the University of Massachusetts in two weeks.
