In yet another impressive weekend of competition, the Dartmouth men's heavyweight crew defeated Syracuse for the Packard Cup at Onondaga Lake in New York on Sunday.
With an unbroken streak dating back to 1991, this was the Big Green's 13th straight victory over the Orangemen at the Packard Cup.
Syracuse fell victim to the Big Green's all-star boat in the first varsity competition. The 19th-ranked Orangemen proved to be no obstacle for the fourth-ranked crew of Melissa Mowat '03 (coxswain), Peter Noteboom '05, Arthur Peterson '05, Jay Conner '03, Joe Gwin '05, Dirk Blum '03, Jaime Velez '03, Don Wyper '05 and Tom Schenck '03.
With its characteristic strong start, the Dartmouth boat took a four-seat lead off the start, which it retained through the first 1,000 meters of the 2,000-meter race.
In the final 500 meters, the Big Green had a strong sprint to gain an open-water edge on the Syracuse crew. Dartmouth coasted across the finish line in 5:49.3 while Syracuse followed nearly six seconds later in 5:55.9.
In other races, Dartmouth's second boat ended its race with a strong sprint to finish with a full boat's length lead over Syracuse. Dartmouth finished in 6:01.1 followed by Syracuse in 6:04.7.
Freshman rowers had a more difficult time handling the Syracuse crew. The Orangemen took top honors in a time of 6:07.8 with Dartmouth finishing in 6:18.4.
The Dartmouth heavyweights relax next weekend before competing at the IRA Regatta in Camden, N.J. on May 29-31.
