With Dartmouth's women's and lightweight men's crews both taking the weekend off as they prepare for the Eastern Sprints next weekend, the Dartmouth heavyweight crew was the only Big Green rowing team to hit the race course this weekend, hosting Syracuse for its final regular season race on Saturday morning.
Dartmouth's first varsity boat finished six seconds behind Syracuse with a time of five minutes and 32 seconds.
The second varsity had a difficult race and came in 15 seconds behind Syracuse's second varsity boat in 5:47.7. The freshman boat finished six seconds behind its Syracuse counterpart with a time of 5:38.6.
The first varsity got out to a fast start and was even with Syracuse at the 500-meter mark. The tougher Syracuse crew was able to continue pressing and keep its pace, however, ultimately rowing away from Dartmouth.
Despite the loss, the weekend marks a significant step for a Dartmouth crew that has had to endure a series of rebuilding seasons. Only three weeks ago Dartmouth, ranked No.17 in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges, suffered an 11 second loss to No. 12 Boston University and a four second loss to No. 16 Rutgers, but the team was able to push No. 7 Syracuse down the racecourse on Saturday, showing tangible improvement.
"It's clear that we are moving in the right direction, and that's really exciting," head coach Topher Bordeau said. "The challenge to the team is to take as many steps as possible in that direction, especially with Sprints only a week from now. It's a positive result for the guys, but right now, we're still six seconds away from where we need to be."
All of the Big Green's rowing teams will now look toward the EARC Sprints, the league championships, which will take place next weekend.
The women's championships will be held in Camden, N.J., and the men's programs will head to Worcester, Mass., for their races.
The women will attempt to qualify for the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Sacramento, Calif., at the end of the month. Both the heavyweight and lightweight men's crews will compete in the Interscholastic Rowing Association Championships in Camden, N.J., on June 5-7.
The most recent coaches' polls project that the women's team and the men's lightweight program, which were both inactive this weekend, will make the six-crew finals for their events at the two regattas.
The final seedings will come out later this week, but with little activity this weekend it is unlikely they will differ significantly from the current rankings. Dartmouth and Syracuse were the only two EARC heavyweight programs to race this weekend.
The Dartmouth lightweight men won the lightweight event at the Eastern Sprints last year for the first time in over a decade. They are currently ranked No. 5 heading into this year's event.
Princeton sits atop the lightweight rankings, followed by Yale, Navy and Cornell. Georgetown rounds out the top six.
Dartmouth has not raced Princeton, Navy or Georgetown this season. The Big Green lost a close race to Cornell by two seconds on May 3, and suffered its worst defeat of the year against Yale, losing by five seconds.
The Dartmouth women grabbed fifth last year but did not receive a bid to the NCAA championship. They are currently ranked No. 6 for this year's Sprints.
Brown leapt over Yale and Princeton to the top of the rankings after beating Yale by five seconds on May 3. Radcliffe and Northeastern round out the top six. The women were defeated by all five boats currently above them in the rankings this season.
At last year's sprints, the Dartmouth heavyweights came in fourth during the third finals, finishing 16th overall at the event.
The heavyweight men are currently ranked No. 17, but do have a shot of earning a trip to the finals if they can continue to find speed this week.
Brown and Wisconsin remain the top two teams in the EARC heavyweight poll. Dartmouth dropped races to both teams this year. Harvard, Princeton, Northeastern and Columbia round out the top six.
The lone win for the Dartmouth heavyweights this season came over No. 18 Holy Cross on April 6. However, with significant improvement over the last two weeks, the results may be indicative of the quality of their opponents.
