The men's and women's crew teams posted impressive results in the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta this past weekend, with the men coming up short of first place twice by a few seconds, and the women performing well despite being dealt an unlucky draw.
Led by co-captains Matt Muffelman '02 and Alex Hamlin '03, the men's team participated in the Senior A Lightweight 8 Final on Saturday and the lightweight 8 Dash Final under the "North Country RC" team name that same day.
Both times the men were defeated at the regatta, an annual rowing event held in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, by small margins to the New York Athletic Club -- a team comprised primarily of former and aspiring national team members. None of the players on the New York team were undergraduates.
In the senior lightweight 8, Dartmouth finished with an impressive 06:08.98 time, trailing NYAC's 06:03.96. The second race was even closer, as Dartmouth eventually lost the race by 00:00.03 seconds in heartbreaking fashion.
The Dartmouth team led off the line in the two kilometer race, but proceeded to lose a sizable lead to both the NYAC and West Side teams before clawing its way back, eventually securing a solid second place finish. Dartmouth reached the finish point a little less than three seconds ahead of the West Side boat.
The dash was an even race throughout until NYAC took a lead with less than half the race to go. With this move, NYAC continued its half length lead, which eventually proved to be an exceptionally close encounter at the finish. Although unable to match NYAC's fast speed, the Dartmouth boat managed to move out to a half length lead over the rest of the pack.
For the women, the races were hard-fought and competitive, but marked with some bad luck for the squad, mainly due to the randomness of the draw for the heats, team members said.
To the chagrin of the Dartmouth women, the first boat was placed in the fastest heat for both the Senior Women's 8 2K in addition to the dash.
Despite some tough luck, the Dartmouth team nonetheless managed to post its best times of the summer season. Out of 18 boats, Dartmouth finished in fourth place overall, but failed to qualify for the finals.
Like the men, the women faced some very formidable opponents, such as a Canadian pre-elite team and a junior development camp that eventually beat the Big Green by a painfully narrow margin of seven seconds.
In the dash, the Dartmouth women's boat finished third place in the first heat yet again, concluding with a time of 01:34.22. That time meant there was less than two seconds separating the Big Green from first place St. Catharines, giving Dartmouth a third place standing overall.
The team failed to qualify by 1.7 seconds, despite the fact that Dartmouth's time in this race was faster than the first place finishing times of all the other heats. In the end, a Canadian pre-elite team from the University of Victoria took the gold in all of the women's 8 events.
"Our times confirmed in our minds that all the work we've been doing this summer paid off, and that we have a great potential for the upcoming season," co-captain Elizabeth Badger '02 said.
