The Dartmouth men's lightweight crew team had a historic victory on Saturday, as the Big Green won the Biglin Bowl over Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the fourth time in the 59-year history of the event.
The varsity eight boat made up a deficit of a boatlength in the final 500 meters of the race, defeating the Crimson in a photo finish.
It was also the first time in Biglin Bowl history that both the varsity and the second varsity boats for Dartmouth were victorious.
The varsity eight boat won in a time of five minutes and 51.8 seconds, just edging out the Crimson, which clocked in at 5:51.85.
The second varsity eight bested its Harvard counterpart crew by two and a half seconds, with a time of 6:05.6.
Commodore David Smith '08 was happy about the victory, but not fully satisfied with the team's performance.
"It's hard to be satisfied if you have to come up on a crew from behind and bring it up to even," Smith said.
For the first 500 meters of the race, both boats were even. In the body of the race, Harvard used its punishing base speed to gain a lead on the Big Green.
Smith said he has always known that Dartmouth had what it took to match Harvard.
"They tried to get out early and break us, but we didn't crack," Smith said. "Sometimes you have time to reflect during the race, and I knew that there wasn't a single person in the boat that would just roll over."
Captain Emerson Curry '08 attributed the victory to the team's resilience.
"It wasn't like we found any magic, we just meat-hammered it down," Curry said. "It was a real smash-and-grab job."
While Harvard has historically dominated the Biglin Bowl, the Crimson may find it difficult to continue to dominate the race, as the Big Green rowing program has improved substantially in recent years.
"Two of the four times that we have beaten Harvard have been while the [Class of 2008] has been here," Curry said. "Dartmouth has traditionally been a tough place to win because of the frozen water, but I think this shows the direction that the program is headed in."
On the women's side, Dartmouth's women's crew competed in the Charles River Challenge in Boston on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, the first varsity rowed in at 6:28.24, losing by five seconds to Radcliffe but finishing with a two-second advantage over Notre Dame. The second varsity finished in 6:38.31, coming in four seconds behind Radcliffe and two seconds behind the Irish.
The first freshman boat had a time of 6:58.51 -- eight seconds behind Radcliffe but eleven seconds ahead of Notre Dame.
The Big Green continued competition the following day with a definitive nine-second victory over Gonzaga, finishing the course in 6:32.70. The second varsity finished in 6:44.90, beating Yale by 11 seconds.
"I feel like we're just starting to get our feet under us," women's head coach Wendy Levash said. "We only get a few chances to race outside of our league, so the races against Gonzaga and Notre Dame were important to us. It was good to be successful in those races."
The two-day race format is odd this early in the season, but Levash felt this gave the boat an advantage.
"Multiple day regattas are something that we can excel in, because our fitness allows us to recover well for a second or a third race," she said.
After several personnel changes through these first few weeks of racing, Levash felt confident that the team is close to finding a lineup that will work, and hopes that a more consistent lineup will allow the crew to focus on technical details.
Meanwhile, Dartmouth's men's heavyweight crew team had a tough outing Saturday in New Brunswick, N.J., falling to Boston University and Rutgers in the Bill Cup.
Dartmouth's first varsity boat finished in 6:06.8, 11 seconds behind the BU crew, which finished in 5:55.8, and Rutgers, which came in at 6:02.3.
The second varsity did not fare much better, finishing in 6:26.0, almost 13 seconds behind BU.
"The race was an improvement over last year, but our expectations are higher this year," head coach Topher Bordeau said in an email message to The Dartmouth. "The varsity had an aggressive race, but we stumbled this week. We had a tough time staying together over the body of the piece, and that cost us."
The lone bright spot on the day was the heavyweight freshman crew, which had a six-second win over the field, finishing in 6:16.7.
Bordeau was pleased by the way the first-year boat opened the race aggressively and showed its toughness by holding off the field towards the end of the course. The freshmen's success this season will only serve to raise expectations for the future of the program.
"The freshman racing was a real bright spot for the program, and hopefully a sign of things to come," Bordeau said.
This weekend, the women's team will host Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday. The lightweights will also compete at home, hosting Yale and Rutgers in the Durand Cup Saturday before taking on Columbia in the Subin Bowl in New York. The heavyweight team will travel to Providence, R.I. on Saturday to compete against Brown in the Atlanta Cup.
