One of the most important races of the Dartmouth crew season is the Eastern Sprints Regatta. The Big Green made the annual trip this past weekend to Worcester, MA for the two men's squads and Camden, N.J. for the women, and came home with results varying from solid to outstanding.
Men's Lightweight
A six year drought had plagued the Dartmouth men's lightweight crew team at the Eastern Sprints Regatta. Until yesterday that is.
The Big Green took home the silver medal, the first time since 1994 that they had received a medal in the prestigious race. The '94 squad took the gold medal in the competition.
Dartmouth went down to the wire with Harvard, outsprinting the Crimson to the finish line by six-tenths of a second for the silver with a time of 5:43.3. The Yale Bulldogs cruised to a 2.1 second victory in the race while Georgetown lost to Harvard by .7 seconds.
Yale took the early advantage while Dartmouth, Harvard and Georgetown jockeyed for second at the 1,000-meter mark. The crew slid slightly apart as the race came down to its end, with the Crimson narrowly ahead with about 20 strokes to go.
Dartmouth then kicked it into overdrive and surged ahead as the race came to a close.
"Somehow they found another gear," said Dartmouth coach Dick Grossman.
"We've never put together that kind of sprint before, not even in practice," said Tam Boyar '01.
Columbia, the defending champion, finished in fifth place with a time of 5:49.3, 8.1 seconds behind Yale while Princeton rowed into sixth place.
Dartmouth's third varsity squad finished third in its race, falling short of Princeton and Yale. The Big Green had been tanked third coming into the race and so did their part with a very solid run.
The jayvee lights came into the sprints seeded second and were looking for a huge day. They struggled somewhat and wound up a disappointing seventh. The freshmen squad also had some troubles and finished eighth, just a tenth of a second off of a petite final victory.
Men's Heavyweight
The first varsity heavies did not fare as well, finishing eight overall. The Big Green missed out on the Grand Final by two spots.
Dartmouth did take home second in the petite final to at least salvage some pride. Wisconsin, who Dartmouth had knocked off the week before, edged out Dartmouth with a time of 5:39.7 to the Big Green's 5:40.9.
Dartmouth's younger squads did not fare very well in the heavies. The second varsity crew came in 10th overall while the freshman fell into the third group, but won their final to garner a 13th place finish.
The heavyweight crew will head to Syracuse this Sunday for their final dual race of the season. They will then have a week and a half to train for the IRA National Regatta on May 31.
Women's
The Dartmouth women's crew team was not ranked as highly as its men's counterparts. The Big Green were ranked 15th in the varsity eight category coming into the Sprints and finished in that spot.
Brown, Princeton and Syracuse took the top honors.
The Big Green fared better in the second varsity eight, taking eighth place while the first novice squad came in ninth. Dartmouth's second novice squad picked up one of the team's two sixth place finishes on the afternoon.
The other sixth place belonged to the varsity B fours while the varsity A four picked up a 10th place finish to round out the races on Sunday.
