Dartmouth rowers, competing under the name of Dresden Rowing Club, headed north across the border last weekend and captured fourth place at the Royal Canadia Henley, the biggest crew race. The fourth-place finish in the 2,000-meter and 500-meter races for the men's lightweight eight made amends for a rather disappointing spring season.
The week-long race, held in St. Catherine, Ontario, Canada attracted world-class rowers from all over the world. In fact, more than 300 boats were from California, Boston, New York, Canada and even from Japan. "The race was definitely higher-level than regular collegiate races," Christopher Rea '99 said. "There were former Olympians, and many other internationally famous rowers. Many of them were college grads and they were very experienced."
Unlike the regular season where the boats consist of rowers from different classes, all the rowers on the lightweight eight were sophomores. The eight captured third for the 2000-meters and second for the dash in the qualifying heats held on Friday.
In the 2,000-meter race, the boat started strong in the first1,000 meters. "That was the best start in my whole rowing career," Rea said. However, the boat fell off and the stroke rate went down in the second half to finish third.
In the finals held on Saturday, the boat tried to avoid the same mistake by starting slow, and paced themselves in the race for the whole time to finish fourth overall. The eight beat both of the boats that had beaten them in Friday's heat.
"The boat only trained together for less than three weeks and they managed to put up a strong showing in both events they entered," Jonathan Rivinus '99 said.
The racers agreed. "We raced very well and had a great event," Sean Kisker '99 said.
The team was helped by Men's Varsity Lightweight Coach Dick Grossman, who served as the coxswain. Grossman has coxed for Harvard University and has coached the US national team."Grossman is a world-class coxswain, and he was incredible," Rea said.
On the other hand, in the 500-meters race, the boat was also coxed by a non-Dartmouth student from California. He is attending California Polytech in September.
Most of the Dartmouth rowers were inexperienced in dash competition, which somewhat hindered the squad. Yet the crew rallied to finish fourth overall. The dash is a short sprinting race which is done within a minute and 20 seconds. While a a boat starts out with high strokes then settles down in a regular race, sprints are different. The middle part barely exists, making it a very intense race.
"Although I was sick personally, the boats came together really well," fourth-seat rower Carl Cecere '99 said.
"We had nothing to lose, and it was a good race," Rea said.
The Henley was the only race of the summer for the crew team.
Although the rowers have been practicing for four to five weeks, "It was more relaxed since we weren't competing for the school," Rea said. "We got recent experience and conditioning toward the fall season."
The team's performance is in part due to the weather, both in Hanover and at the race.
"It's a great time of the year to row," Rea said.
"The conditions for the event were near ideal with temperatures a bit on the high side in the lower 90s and winds reasonably soft," Rivinus said.
In the heavyweight race, Daniel Protz '98 won the intermediate heavyweight singles, and came in third in the senior heavyweight singles.
