The Dartmouth lightweight rowers swept Sunday's regatta on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., in a race featuring Holy Cross and Boston College.
The tightest race of the day came in the varsity lightweight eight competition where all three boats were within a few feet of each other for the 2,000 meters. With 250 meters to go, Dartmouth and Holy Cross were even with Boston College slightly behind.
The Big Green outsprinted the other two boats, finishing in 6:19.6. The Eagles nosed ahead for second place in 6:20.4, with the Crusaders third in 6:21.1.
"It was great fun! That makes all the training and hard work through the winter worth it. It builds confidence, and makes the team hungry for more," said captain James Perencevich '04.
In the first freshman eight, the Big Green clocked 6:32.4, with Holy Cross seven seconds back and BC 16 seconds behind. The freshmen enjoyed a quick and powerful start and 1,000 meters into the race they already had half a boat length open water. After that, they dropped the pace and Holy Cross almost caught up with them, but Big Green still managed to pull out the victory.
"If the race was 500 or 1000 meters longer they may have passed us," said coxswain Alexander Consky '07.
However, he is confident that the team will learn from their mistakes.
"In the future, we're going to focus on self-motivation and going one hundred percent no matter where the other crews are, and never letting a crew walk through us like Holy Cross almost did," Consky added.
Dartmouth won the second varsity race in 6:29.1, 13 seconds ahead of Holy Cross and 22 ahead of Boston College. Dartmouth also won the third varsity in 6:42.1, 18 seconds ahead of the Crusaders.
The lights are off next weekend before hosting Harvard and MIT Saturday, April 17, on the Connecticut River.
"We have two weeks to prepare for Harvard and MIT. Harvard is one of, if not the, best lightweight crews in the nation. Between now and then we'll be taking a lot of strokes and doing all we can to be our fastest on Saturday, April 17," said Perencevich.
