The women (12-2, 3-2 Ivy), who raced in Hanover, had one of their best races of the season, as Cornell is traditionally a solid team.
"Every boat got faster, and that was pretty exciting," captain Sarah Alexander '10 said. "[It] really showed that fitness is a strength of ours."
It was the team's first home race in two years, and according to Alexander, it helped give the team a mental edge.
"Knowing that people's friends were coming to watch and having a lot of family here the morale was pretty high today," she said.
Now the team will turn its focus to the Eastern Sprints. Last year at the regatta, each boat qualified for the Grand Finals.
Alexander called last year's performance a big step for the program and said she was hoping the team could repeat, if not improve, on that showing.
"All the teams get faster as the season goes on, and in two weeks [of training], a lot can happen," she said. "But we're definitely in a good place to work off of for the next couple of weeks."
The men's lightweight team (2-2-1, 1-2-1 Ivy) was just barely unable to match the results of the women, losing to the Big Red by 0.6 seconds.
"We had a good start, a pretty good base and a good sprint," captain Josh Patch '09 said. "We weren't really disappointed with it. We are just motivated to work for the next few weeks to beat them at [Eastern Sprints]."
Going into the regatta, Patch said he was hoping the team would have a more complete race and be more consistent. He added that even though the team did not manage to win, the men's performance was a big improvement.
Both teams went head-to-head for nearly the entire race, until the Big Red managed to narrowly slip by the Big Green to take the win.
Patch said the team expected the race to be a close finish.
The meet also marked the last dual race for the seniors on the lightweight team Ian Boneysteele '10, Nick Dawe '10, James Allison '10, John Lane '10 and Patch.
"We were a little more excited and had a little more adrenaline going, which helped during the race," Patch said.
Still, as the team heads into Eastern Sprints, it will spend the next few weeks completing more rigorous training in preparation for the regatta, according to Patch.
Last year, the team placed ninth, missing the qualifying standard for nationals by only two places.
"We know we need to do a lot of work, and we're excited to have the time to do that," Patch said.
The men's heavyweight team (3-4, 0-2 Ivy) also took a rough loss, falling to Wisconsin by two seconds.
"It's always tough to lose, but we put together a solid race," captain Evan Greulich '10 said. "Wisconsin is one of the best teams in the country, so to be only two seconds behind them, we were pretty happy."
Similar to the lightweight contest, the race was a dead heat all the way up until the end. The Badgers finished in 5:53.78, just enough to beat Dartmouth's 5:55.71 finish.
Greulich said the team went into the race having prepared well, with a solid week of training under its belt. He also said that the men did a much better job of rowing in sync, something that will help them a lot in the upcoming Eastern Sprints.
"We wanted to row a complete race and go as fast as we could, and I thought we did a pretty good job," he said.
At the Eastern Sprints, the heavyweight team has a strong showing to live up to, as it qualified for Nationals last year.
This year, the qualification process is more stringent, but Greulich said he is confident that the team can put together a good race for the Sprints.
"We're excited, we're optimistic and we're ready to put a lot of hard work in for the next two weeks," he said.
