The men's heavyweight crew team started its spring season on a sour note this past weekend.
The team traveled to Connecticut where it was swept in all five races by Ivy League opponent Yale last Saturday.
The first varsity boat finished well behind Yale's first boat's 5:41.2 pace, coming in at 5:48.0.
Dartmouth's most successful effort came from the second varsity boat. In its race, the Big Green rowers were narrowly defeated by seven-tenths of a second, 5:48.1 to 5:48.8.
The two freshmen boats and the third varsity crew also returned home with losses to the Yale Elis.
Yale "rowed a clean race and we rowed a sloppy race," co-Captain Brian Palm '96 said. "At least we know we weren't at our best when they beat us. We definitely have a lot of speed that we're still looking for."
In addition to their inconsistent rowing last weekend, the Big Green were also trying to compensate for the distinct advantage that Yale held in actual practice time prior to the race.
Yale has been practicing on the water for nearly eight weeks, while Dartmouth has had barely four weeks out on the Connecticut River.
"Every year Yale is the first race of the season and we lose, but when we face them later in the season, at Sprints, we beat them," Palm said.
"We're gonna make a lot of switches this week with our lineups, and we're just gonna continue to work hard in practice and try to find a little focus," he said.
Next up for the men's heavyweight crew team is the University of New Hampshire. The team will travel to Durham this Sunday, April 14 to take on UNH.
Palm was optimistic about his team's chances in next weekend's competition.
"UNH should be a good race for us," he said. "Traditionally they don't have a very strong team, so hopefully we'll be able to try a few things out and have a good solid race."
