The men's heavyweight rowing team was able to bounce back from last week's loss with a win against Rutgers and Boston University in Cambridge, Mass., this past weekend. They beat these two teams for the fifth consecutive year and won the annual Bill Cup.
The perfect conditions made it easier for the Big Green to have a solid performance. The race started off with Rutgers taking an early lead, but gritty rowing and team efforts willed the Big Green to pull even with the Scarlet Knights with 1,300 meters left. By the midway point, Dartmouth crew had pulled a four-seat lead over Rutgers.
The Big Green ended up winning by about two seconds as they recorded a time of 5:56.16, with Rutgers behind at 5:58.39 and Boston University ending up in third with a time of 6:00.40. Rutgers, however, did win the second varsity race by five seconds, and Boston University was able to pull out a victory in the first freshmen race by seven seconds.
"We beat a very good Rutgers crew and a very good BU crew, which was ranked 11th in the country, ahead of us," David Shamszad '04 said.
He also added that there was a major improvement from last weekend, remarking, "We rowed a much stronger race, putting more power and length into each stroke."
However, Shamszad commented that an improvement needed to be made in quickening the start times, especially considering Rutgers' large lead in the beginning of the race.
A highlight of the weekend came when Robert Carey '06 won his first collegiate racing shirt. This is a tradition where the winning team always takes the shirts off the backs of the losing team. The Big Green will be competing at Brown Saturday, April 24 for the Atlanta Cup.
