The Big Green rowers had a strong showing in their first races of the season the past weekend as they warmed up for the season's biggest race, the Head of the Charles this upcoming weekend. While the men's varsity heavyweight squad traveled to Rochester, N.Y. for the Stonehurst Capital Regatta, the rest of the team competed in the Head of the Connecticut competition at Middleton, Conn.
The varsity heavyweights fared well, earning fourth place among the 27 boats that competed. The varsity lightweights managed to do even better as they placed second racing against heavyweight crews at the Head of the Connecticut.
The junior varsity heavyweight squad also competed in that race, earning an eight place finish. On the women's side, Dartmouth won a bronze medal in the intermediate eights. A second eight-man lightweight crew earned 3rd place in a race against nationally ranked club teams.
The final standings in the Stonehurst Capital Regatta were computed by adding the times of the morning 3.5-mile race with the afternoon 1500 meter sprint. The morning race saw the Big Green finish fourth, while Dartmouth was only bested by Yale in the 1500 -meter sprint.
Captain Daniel Protz '98 was "especially pleased" with the 1500m sprint as the Big Green outrowed Brown, who took home the silver medal at last year's national competition.
The final tally put Yale in 1st, with a combined time of 27:20, Harvard followed with 27:30 and Brown finished 11 seconds later. Dartmouth secured its fourth place standing by edging out Northeastern with a time of 27:44.
"We were closer than we have been in years past to the top schools in the heavyweight division," Heavyweight coach Scott Armstrong said. "The D-Plan has cost us some of our top rowers and once we get them back we should have room to improve as the season progresses."
The lightweight squad finished second only to Boston University in the intermediate heavyweight eight race. They were followed by another B.U. boat as well as Dartmouth's second heavyweight boat.
"We had a very solid race and maintained our intensity through the full 18 minutes," bow rower Alexander Shartsis '00 said. "There were definitely areas we can improve on, but overall we have no regrets about our performance."
"It wasn't the best that we've rowed this year, but we still pulled it together and beat a lot of good crews," Drew Mowery '00 said.
"It's still very early in the year, but it's a good start for us in what's been a frustrating, undermanned fall," Mowery said.
The heavyweight squad which rowed in the fours did not have such an auspicious start. They finished a disappointing 12th out of 28 boats in the race won by Holy Cross.
"We could have rowed much better," Coxswain Matt Seigel '00 said.
Seigel did pointout that the boat had just been assembled on Friday for just one practice before the race.
"The key to winning is getting used to the guys on the boat. "You need to establish a good set and a good ratio of power," he said. "Our boat has the physical strength necessary to be succesful, but we do not yet have the synchronization that truly great teams have."
The Big Green will need to step up their performances next week when they compete in famed Head of the Charles in Cambridge. This race features top international and national crews in a two day event marked by its high competition. While most rowers feel they performed well at Sunday's race, the team will need to produce some truly high caliber performance in order to suceed in the highly competetive international competition.
