In their season opener, the men's heavyweight squads fell to the Yale Bulldogs. However, the lightweights, with the exception of the novice eight, swept Delaware in the two schools' first head-to-head meet.
The women's squads rounded out the action with mixed results against opponents Yale and Boston University.
Coming into Saturday, the Bulldogs boasted a battle-hardened heavyweight team with three races already behind them. The extra experience paid off against the raw Big Green, which was unable to overcome the harsh conditions on the Housatonic River.
Yale used the fast tailwinds against Dartmouth and finished with a time of 5:37.2 to the the Green's 5:58.2.
In the second varsity eight, Dartmouth lost by 11 seconds to the Bulldog's 5:55.1 time. Likewise, both Big Green freshmen squads were defeated.
The lightweight team fared better than its heavyweight counterpart. With a severe wind, 45-degree temperatures and rain, the varsity eight posted a winning time of 6:14.4 on Mercer County Lake, besting Delaware by 11 seconds.
"This win was very exciting for us," lightweight captain Ryan Wheeler '06 said. "This is a great start to our very demanding spring season. Delaware beat our varsity boat last year at Eastern Sprints -- our biggest race of the year -- and it was quite fulfilling to have a 13-second improvement over [that] performance. We have been training very hard with our new coach, Steve Perry, and it has definitely been paying off."
The Big Green second varsity edged out Delaware 6:26.8 to 6:29.5, while the 3V/2F combo eight won its race in 6:38.9. Closing out the afternoon was the freshmen eight, which fell to Delaware by just 2.5 seconds, recording a 6:31.6 time.
"Coming home from our spring break training trip in Miami, Fla., we were anxious to race and gauge the speed of our boats," Wheeler added. "Yesterday was a very good indicator for things to come this season because each varsity boat rose to the challenge and did exactly what it needed to do to win.
The women's team joined the men's heavyweights on the Housatonic River and experienced the same harsh conditions.
The varsity eight (6:17.54) managed to record a second-place finish, falling to Ivy power Yale (6:13.61) by just three seconds and managing to beat the Boston University Terriers (6:27.7) in convincing fashion.
In the varsity second eight race, the Yale Bulldogs placed first in 6:25.48, the Terriers grabbed second and the Big Green settled for a distant third.
The novice eight won the only race of the day for the women, outdistancing the Bulldogs by just three seconds.
Next weekend, the Big Green women will face Radcliffe and Syracuse at Hanover, the men's lightweight team will challenge Harvard at the Biglin Bowl in Boston, Mass., and the heavyweights will square off against Rutgers and BU in Hanover.
