Throughout the season, the Dartmouth varsity heavyweight men's crew team made it no secret that they had only one goal this season, to win Eastern Sprints.
This weekend it was time to put up or shut up for the Big Green and they certainly put forth a valiant effort, advancing through the highly competitive field and qualifying for the grand final. In the end, however, they fell short in the final race, placing sixth.
In other action, the freshman boat finished 14th, the junior varsity 10th, and due to a strange quirk in the scheduling, the third varsity boat avenged two earlier losses to Rutgers by defeating them in a dual race.
The Big Green started off the day in impressive fashion by eliminating the fourth-seeded and three-time defending national champion Brown boat in the morning heats.
Dartmouth jumped out of the gates in torrid fashion rowing a lightening fast opening 500 meters, but it took a big move at the halfway mark to put some distance between itself and Brown.
Harvard claimed the heat by several seats, but Dartmouth finished second, nearly a boat length ahead of Brown, to advance to the grand finals.
"It was definitely our best race of the season," co-Captain Tom Gilmore '96 said.
Unfortunately, the Big Green did not have enough time to recover from the emotional and physical strain that the morning race had put on them.
"We were definitely a little upset with the final race because we thought we had a good chance to medal," Gilmore said. "The field was wide open considering that the number one seed, Navy, had been knocked out."
Despite these high aspirations, Dartmouth never found its rhythm in the second race, falling behind early and finishing last in the six boat final. Northeastern captured the title, while Penn and Princeton finished second and third, respectively.
With the exception of Northeastern, who cruised to an easy victory in the preliminaries, all of the boats had to endure draining qualifying races in the morning.
"I hate to make excuses, but I think the morning took a lot out of us," Gilmore said. "We fell behind early, and we never row very well from behind."
Regardless of its difficulty in the grand final, Gilmore said the team was incredibly pleased that it had established itself as one of the top six crews in the country and considered the weekend a success.
The men's heavyweight crew will now take a week off as it gears up for the IRA Regatta which begins May 30, in Camden, New Jersey, where they will face off against the top crews from around the country.
