If this weekend's results teach Big Green rowers anything, it's that if they want to win, home is the place to be.
The women's crew and the heavyweights both took top honors on the home course this weekend while the lightweights struggled on a grueling double-header roadtrip down south.
The women's varsity crew cruised to their first victory of the season on Saturday as they beat Radcliffe and Syracuse on the 2000-meter course on the Connecticut River. With a time of 5:38.5, the Big Green edged Radcliffe by two seconds and topped Syracuse by a five second margin.
"The varsity boat pulled together and raced our own race," co-Captain Rosi Kerr '97 said. "We needed to go internal and focus on relaxing and we did it."
The Dartmouth women also won the junior varsity race as Radcliffe and Syracuse trailed by seven seconds. Radcliffe won both novice races and edged out both of Dartmouth's varsity fours in the third varsity flight.
The Big Green's varsity heavyweight eight left Rutgers and BU eating their wake as they took first in the Bill Cup Regatta on Saturday.
Dartmouth completed the course in 5:05.99, while Rutgers trailed by two seconds and BU came in at 5:13.4. Dartmouth has won the Bill Cup four out of the last five years, including the last two.
"The race was a real step forward for the program," co-Captain James Jarrett '97 said. "It was the varsity's first league race and we were able to win in very fast conditions despite having nearly two months less water time than our opponents."
Dartmouth took a nine seat lead at the 1000-meter mark before Rutgers threatened to pull even in the final sprint. The Big Green rallied in the closing seconds of the race to preserve the victory by less than a meter.
The varsity lightweights finished third in the Durand Cup Regatta held at the Rutgers race course as Yale pulled of the win in 5:46.0, followed by Rutgers in 5:50.9 and the Big Green crossing the line four seconds later.
But in the second varsity race, Dartmouth scored a seven-tenths of a second upset victory over the top-ranked Bulldogs as they clocked a 5:52.1, ahead of Yale who crossed at 5:52.8.
The lightweights also took home shirts in the third varsity race and both freshman flights.
On Sunday, the varsity lightweight eight played second fiddle again as the Columbia Lions won the Subin Cup for the second straight season. Columbia clocked a 6:34.2 to beat Dartmouth by nearly eight seconds.
While the Big Green swept the freshman races, the Lions found a way to win on the third varsity level.
All in all, this weekend will serve as a new beginning for this year's varsity crews. Each team still has a few more weeks to work out the kinks and find some momentum on the water before Eastern Sprints Championships roll around.
And for the most part, each crew knows what their weaknesses are by now.
"We still have somewhere to go, which is a good thing," Kerr said. "But the weekend was a big step in the right direction."
The same could be said for all the Big Green athletes who spend their afternoons at the boathouse.
