For the first and only time this season, all three Dartmouth rowing programs raced in Hanover, on Saturday during first-year family weekend.
While the women had success, both the men's heavyweight and lightweight crews struggled against highly-ranked opponents.
Dartmouth women's crew took home the Parents' Cup in a victory against Cornell. The first varsity boat finished in six minutes and .8 seconds beating Cornell by four seconds. The second varsity cruised to victory in 6:07.8, besting the Big Red's second boat by 13 seconds.
The women's freshman crew faltered, however, finishing at 6:18.9, six seconds behind Cornell.
"It was really nice to have all the varsity crews win for the first time this year," captain Kate Mann '08 said. "For the seniors and the juniors this was our last home race, because we won't be racing at home next year."
The women's boats had spent the past week of practice focusing on the start, and their efforts paid off on Saturday.
"The varsity crew's strength will be the last 1,000 meters and its sprint, and this time we were able to avoid finding ourselves down and having to walk back," Mann said.
The women's team now faces two weeks of training before the league championship Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges Sprints on May 18 in Camden, N.J.The Big Green will enter Sprints as the No. 6 seed.
"We'll spend the next two weeks really just doing a lot of pieces, pulling together our stroke and searching for that top end speed," Mann said.
Meanwhile, the men's heavyweight crew faced off against Wisconsin -- ranked No. 3 nationally and No. 2 in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges' coaches poll -- for the Cochrane Cup.
The first varsity boat lost by seven seconds, finishing in 5:29.7. The second varsity came in at 5:43.7, 13 seconds behind Wisconsin. The freshman heavyweights finished in 5:37.6, nine seconds back.
Despite the losses, the men's team took the results with a positive attitude -- the crew lost by 19 seconds a week ago to Brown, which is ranked only one spot ahead of Wisconsin.
The team has made a few personnel switches within the first varsity boat that appeared to pay dividends on Saturday.
"We're looking to win every time we shove from the dock, and we knew that would be a tall order on Saturday," head coach Topher Bordeau said in an e-mail.
"The first impression coming away from the weekend is that a loss is never good enough and that should create an insecure desire to turn the result around," Bordeau said. "But you have to get beyond that to bring some perspective to the racing, to figure out how you're going to actually make that turnaround happen."
The men's heavyweight crew from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was also scheduled to race in Hanover on Saturday, but dropped out of the Cochrane Cup at the last minute due to personnel issues.
The heavyweight team will host Syracuse in the Packard Cup next Saturday in the Big Green's final dual race of the year before the Eastern Sprints.
The men's lightweight rowing team had a disappointing end to its regular season, as the No. 5 Dartmouth varsity eight lost a close race to No. 4 Cornell in the Baggaley Bowl in Hanover Saturday.
"We raced a good race," head coach Steve Perry said. "Cornell just had a better one."
The Big Red now boasts a 27-16 series lead in the Baggaley Bowl, a race that has been especially competitive in recent years.
Cornell won all four races that were contested on Saturday.
The Big Green's varsity eight boat is 5-2 on the year, with both losses coming at home.
The varsity eight race was an exciting affair. The Big Green looked strong for the first half of the course but lost steam towards the end, as the Big Red came through with a 2.4 second victory. The Big Red came to the finish in 5:20.2, while Dartmouth finished with a time of 5:22.6.
"Our varsity boat had the best race so far," Perry said. "They had the lead on Cornell, but Cornell really pulled through and our guys need to find a better rhythm in the middle of the race."
The second varsity eights struggled as the Big Green lost by over six seconds.
Both the third varsity and freshman boats did not fare much better, losing by margins of over 10 seconds.
In practices leading into the Eastern Sprints, the lightweight crew will focus on racing well for the entire 2,000 meters.
"We have two weeks until the EARC championships," Perry said. "The most drastic improvement we need to make is putting together a complete race."
