Dartmouth's men's and women's rowing teams competed to varied results in the Eastern Sprints championships this past weekend. The men's lightweight and heavyweight teams traveled to Worcester, Mass., while the women's team competed in Camden, N.J.
The men's lightweight crew attempted to defend its title as last year's Eastern Sprints champions but ran into a determined Cornell team that was seeking revenge.
The Big Red rebounded from last year's two-second loss to the Big Green, coming in first in the varsity eight grand finals nearly three seconds ahead of second-place Princeton. The Big Red also won the Jope Cup, awarded to the crew with the most points accumulated between the first varsity, second varsity and freshman races.
The Big Green's first and second varsity boats qualified for their respective grand finals, and the third varsity qualified because there were only six competing boats. The varsity eights finished in fifth. The second and third varsity both came in sixth, and the freshman boat came in 11th place.
Navy won both the second and third varsity races, and Yale won the freshman race.
The varsity eights made it past the preliminary heat in third place, behind eventual champions Cornell and Princeton.
In the finals, Yale jumped out to an early lead, mounting a two-seat lead on Princeton, Navy and Cornell. In the second 500 meters, the Tigers and the Big Red challenged the Bulldogs, while Navy, Dartmouth and Columbia fell behind to make it a three-boat race for first.
Cornell turned it on in the third 500 meters, jumping in front of Princeton and Yale with a solid sprint to hold off the Tigers and the Bulldogs. Cornell finished in 6:17.35. The Big Green crossed the line in 6:33.484.
"We came off the line well in the first 500 meters, but then some of the other boats found another gear," lightweight head coach Steve Perry said. "Cornell just put on a push that was impressive to watch. Any time you go into these races you always want to come out higher than you were ranked, and we came in ranked fifth so it was an average day."
Dartmouth's second varsity eight boat finished second in the preliminary heat, behind Navy.
The Midshipmen came on strong again in the finals to finish first, barely edging out Yale. Navy took the lead in the second 500 meters, and though the Bulldogs pushed the Midshipmen with a strong second half of the race, Navy had a furious sprint to secure first in 6:09.319. The Big Green finished with a time of 6:27.5.
The third varsity finished sixth in its heat, in 6:45.322, and Navy, the eventual winners, once again provided the theatrics: The Midshipmen were in fourth place with just 700 meters to go, but put on a furious charge to clip Yale at the finish line. Navy finished the race in 6:16.103, just .148 seconds ahead of Yale.
The freshmen finished fifth in the petite final and 11th overall with a time of 6:35.291.
"One thing we're going to be doing is looking a lot towards our stroke rating," Perry said. "Other boats were able to get more speed at a lower stroke rating than us, so we want to get back to the basics and work on that. I also want to find the right combination, because I don't think the boat was working as well as it could have, so we're going back to the drawing board."
Dartmouth's first varsity heavyweight crew fell just short of qualifying for the petite finals, but managed to significantly outrace its initial seeding, winning the third finals with a time of 6:21.75 and beating runner-up George Washington University by three seconds.
Dartmouth's second varsity heavyweights finished second in the third finals with a time of 6:25.79, falling to GWU by 4.5 seconds.
Dartmouth's freshman heavyweight boat placed fourth in the petite finals of the freshman event with a time of 6:06.75, finishing 8.5 seconds behind Wisconsin.
Men's heavyweight captain Jamie Tansey '08 noted that the team was happy to see all three heavyweight boats finish above their initial seedings.
"With our first boat, our goal had been to make petites, but we were happy with our morning race even though we didn't get the result we wanted," Tansey said. "The second race we won by open water, so we were really happy with that."
Wisconsin won the first varsity heavyweight event to remain undefeated on the season. The Badgers beat top-seeded Brown by 3.5 seconds in the grand final with a time of 6:09.7. Princeton took third place, and Yale, Northeastern and Columbia rounded out the grand final.
A few hundred miles to the south, Dartmouth's women's crew also battled the competition.
Dartmouth's first varsity women's boat won a tight petite final in 6:31.17, beating runner-up Bucknell by a slim margin of 0.1 seconds.
The second varsity boat had tremendous success, racing to second place in the grand finals of the second varsity event with a time of 6:43.63 -- defeating Yale by only half a second but finishing 6.5 seconds behind the winning crew from Brown.
The freshman women took fifth in the grand finals of the freshman event with a time of 7:02.3, almost 18 seconds behind first-place Brown.
Brown dominated the women's Sprints, pulling off an impressive sweep of the first varsity, second varsity and freshman events.
Yale and Radcliffe took second and third in the first varsity grand final. Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University rounded out the grand final.
Dartmouth's women's crew now anticipates an invitation to the NCAA Championships, which will be held from May 30 to June 1 in Sacramento, Calif.
The Big Green men's crews will close out the season at the IRA National Championship on June 7 at Cooper River in Camden, N.J.
For the lightweights, Cornell will attempt to win the regatta for the third consecutive year. Last season, Dartmouth finished fourth.
The heavyweight team will look to improve its sixth-place finish in the fourth-level final last year.
