Dartmouth's lightweight crews found the light through the dense fog along the Charles River this weekend as all four boats cruised to easy victories over the Tufts heavyweights.
Fresh off their victories at the Augusta Invitational over the break, the first varsity won the 2000-meter race in 6:07, edging Tufts by 14 seconds, while the second boat clocked a 6:13 to beat the Jumbos by 17 seconds.
"Considering we haven't been on the water all week, I think we rowed quite well this weekend," coxswain Stephanie Yu '97 said. "The water on the Charles was unusually calm, so I think that helped us keep the boats set."
The Tufts crews were slow off the start as Dartmouth gained full-length leads in the opening 500 meters of each race.
"Right off the start, we took the lead," Rusty Talbot '99 said. "Then at the 1000-meter mark, we did a power-twenty to gain open water and at that point, the race was pretty much over."
In the freshman boats, it was more of the same -- the Big Green saying "bye, bye" in the first few strokes of the race.
"We had a decent start," Jay Cormier '00 said. "But we were very anxious and I think our first 1250 meters were rushed and it wasn't until the last 750 meters that we began to get a feel for the boat."
After the races, the crews stayed in Boston to get in some extra practice sessions on the water.
"I think the races on Saturday were the easiest part of the weekend," Talbot said. "We ended up having another row that afternoon and then another one early Sunday morning too."
For the Big Green, the first few weeks of the Spring season are perennially frustrating since they're forced to train indoors rather than on the water.
Typically, the Connecticut River still has icebergs through the first week of April.
This year, the ice broke on Saturday evening, so the rowers are hoping to get back on the water by mid-week.
"The thought of training indoors for another three weeks is by itself a horrible prospect," Austin Whitman '99 said. "And it's even worse knowing that all the other Ivies have been on the water for some time now."
The Big Green lightweights will certainly have their work cut out for them in the next two weeks as they prepare for their upcoming race against Harvard.
"The key thing now is that we get the docks in and take advantage of the water we have when conditions are favorable, and when there's too much current or wind or too many icebergs we have to keep the intensity off the water," Whitman said.
In other Dartmouth rowing action this weekend, the heavyweights traveled to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. to train on the Eastern Sprints race course.
