After emerging with a string of wins from last weekend's races, the crew teams experienced mixed results on Saturday. Despite the men's lightweight and women's teams' victories over Saint Joseph's University and Boston University, respectively, the men's heavyweight and women's team both lost to Yale University. The men's lightweight team also suffered a loss at the hands of the University of Delaware.
Last weekend, all three teams had solid performances, with the varsity eight of each squad winning their races. The heavyweight team won all four races against Holy Cross University, and the varsity boat (1-1, 0-1 Ivy) beat the Crusaders by over 20 seconds.
The lightweight crew squad (3-1, 1-0 Ivy) posted wins against both the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at a meet in Cambridge, Mass. On the women's side, both the first and second Dartmouth boats (6-1, 0-1 Ivy) won races against Northeastern University, the University of Rhode Island and Boston College.
"We stuck to the fundamentals and we made the stroke as easy as possible," lightweight captain Josh Patch '09 said. "It allowed us to put all of our energy into moving the boat."
Heavyweight crew captain Evan Greulich '10 said that the victories were by the largest margins that they had beaten Holy Cross by in quite a few years.
"All four crews did a good job and put a good race together," he said.
Women's captain Sarah Alexander '10 added that the team's series of wins was a great jumping off point for the rest of the season.
In the men's heavyweight crew team's meet this past Saturday against the Bulldogs, however, all four boats posted losses.
"We knew how big of a challenge Yale was going into [the race] and that we would have to put together our best race in order to beat them," Greulich said.
According to Greulich, the conditions were challenging as the race course was uniquely curved and there was a strong tail wind. The first heavyweight varsity team had a very close race against the Bulldogs, but was unable to overtake them.
Next week, the heavyweight team hosts No. 6 Boston University.
"We'd like to challenge them," Greulich said. "If we put together a good race, we might surprise them."
The men's heavyweight team will also race against a Rutgers University squad that it beat last season.
The lightweight team posted an impressive victory against St. Joseph's University, but narrowly lost to the University of Delaware. Patch said the loss against the Blue Hens was upsetting for the team since Delaware lost two weeks ago to the Quakers a team the Big Green had already beaten.
"I think we felt less pressure this week because last week we had no idea where we were and we felt like we had to prove something," he said. "This week, we went in a little too relaxed."
Patch added that the lightweight squad struggled with the windy weather conditions on Saturday.
For next week's meet against the Engineers and Harvard University in Hanover, Patch said the team is hoping to improve its rowing by making it more automatic and consistent. Since the lightweight team beat MIT last weekend, it is now focusing on the Crimson in order to stay competitive in the League, according to Patch.
The women's team also posted its first loss of the season to the No. 4 Yale squad by a four second margin, but beat the Terriers. The Big Green earned a convincing victory against BU, finishing with a 14-second advantage. Against the Bulldogs, Dartmouth pulled ahead in the middle of the race, but Yale edged Dartmouth out in the last 500 meters.
Alexander said that despite the loss, the race was a great opportunity for the team to gauge its speed on the national scale.
"The fact that we were four seconds off of Yale with perhaps not our best performance is exciting," she said.
The team now looks ahead to its race next weekend against Radcliffe College, which the Dartmouth women's first varsity boat has not beaten since 2007, and Syracuse University.
"Everyone still feels like we have a lot of speed to find still," Alexander said.
