For the men's lightweight team, this weekend was one of the most exciting meets to date, according to captain Josh Patch '09.
"There was an air that we were going to have a good row because we were rowing well all week," he said. "Everyone was really focused today."
Yale, who has won the Durand Cup the last two years, is one of the strongest teams in the country. Although Dartmouth's first varsity boat was ahead of the Bulldogs for the majority of the race, Yale pushed forward in the last 10 seconds, tying the Big Green.
"We had a really relaxed speed for the middle portion of the race," Patch said. "They barely caught up at the finish line, and we were a little disappointed by that."
He also added that smooth conditions and a home water advantage helped boost team confidence, as it has rowed down the course many times already.
"I felt great we had a really good race," he said. "But there are still things [we] can work on, and we can keep getting faster."
On Sunday, the lightweight team had another race against Columbia University in New York, edging out the Lions by 3.2 seconds.
Patch said that even though the conditions were poorer than the previous day's race, the team did what it needed to do to get the win.
Next Saturday, the team will host Cornell University at home for the Baggaley Bowl.
"We still have a lot of work to do, [but] we're getting faster and faster every day," Patch said.
Although the women's first varsity boat managed to best the University of Pennsylvania and Bucknell University with a time of 6:40 at Carnegie Lake in Princeton N.J., it was not able to catch up to the Tigers, who won the race by over 14 seconds.
Princeton took the race early, as it quickly gained a lot of distance between itself and the other three teams. The Big Green made a huge push in the middle of the race in an attempt to make up for the lost ground against the Tigers, but Princeton had already taken such a sizable lead that Dartmouth's boat was unable to catch up. Dartmouth finished ahead of Penn by two seconds and beat Bucknell by over 15 seconds.
The women's team has a home meet next week against Buffalo University, Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts. It will be the team's last meet before the Eastern Sprints in Camden, N.J.
The men's heavyweight team posted a tough loss to Brown over the weekend. The Bears are ranked first in the Eastern Sprints League while Dartmouth is ranked eleventh.
According to captain Evan Greulich '10, the rugged conditions on the water made it difficult to race, especially since Brown has had more experience in rough waters.
"Sometimes you feel like you lost to the conditions, not the opponent," he said.
Coach Topher Bordeau said that the course had one of the biggest headwinds he had ever seen on a race course, but that he was still proud of how the team consistently raced hard all the way down the course.
Brown finished with a time of a 5:58.56 approximately 13 seconds faster than the Big Green.
As the team looks forward to its meet next week against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wisconsin University, Greulich said the competition won't get any easier.
He added that while the team is confident that it can beat MIT, beating Wisconsin will be a more difficult task.
"It would be a big victory to beat [Wisconsin], so we'll be training hard for that this week," Greulich said.
Bordeau added that he is hoping the team can make a few minor adjustments before the next meet.
"If we do a couple things just a little better, that might be a 3 or 4 second difference in our speed," he said. "And the thing about the heavyweight (Eastern Sprints) league this year is that it will make a big difference because there are so many teams that are close together."
