In a weekend that included inclement weather, tough conditions and location changes, the men’s and women’s crew teams saw mixed results. The women’s crew team competed in a two-day Clemson Invitational, faring better on the second day. The men’s lightweight team failed to win a race as it struggled against Yale University in the Durand Cup and Columbia University in the Subin Cup. The men’s heavyweight team fell to Boston University and beat Rutgers University.
The weekend started bright and early Friday for the women, who caught a 7:30 a.m. flight out of Manchester to Clemson, S.C., for a 21-team competition.
The first varsity eight kicked off the regatta with a sixth-place finish in its heat and a time of 7:17.2 for the 2,000-meter race.
“We were off our game,” Annie Gardner ’15 said. “The conditions were pretty rough, and we didn’t handle that nearly as well as we could have.”
The second varsity eight did not fare any better, finishing last in its heat with a time of 8:00.4, the same place as the first varsity four, which claimed seventh with a time of 8:55.7.
“Our coach talked to us and was like, ‘Snap out of it, ladies!’” Gardner said. “We went over what we could change for our next races, and we were able to turn it around.”
The women’s crew team saw more success on Sunday. The first boat took third in its heat with a time of 6:55.9, just over four seconds behind heat-winner Cornell University. The second varsity eight placed second in its heat and the varsity four narrowly missed a top-three finish, crossing the line just 0.4 seconds behind third-place Cornell in its heat.
In the second session, the first varsity eight bested the Big Red but fished fifth overall with a time of 7:13.1. The second eight fell back to sixth place in its afternoon race, and the varsity four also regressed in the afternoon, coming in seventh.
On Saturday, the men’s lightweight team went head-to-head with Yale in Derby, Conn. Though originally scheduled to take place in Hanover, the race was moved due to inclement weather. All three of Dartmouth’s boats fell to the Bulldogs. The first varsity eight dropped the 2,000-meter race with a time of 5:38.49, a little over seven seconds behind Yale.
“We started off on a bad foot and we never recovered,” lightweight coach Sean Healey said. “We were able to prevent Yale from just rocketing out, but looking at the race, I think there’s a lot that could be improved upon.”
Its second boat did not fare better, finishing nearly 12 seconds after Yale with a time of 5:47.96.
“They were actually having a phenomenal race until about the halfway mark when they caught a digger, which is when someone gets their blade stuck in the water,” Healey said. “They recovered okay from that one, and then they just proceeded to catch a lot of those.”
The team’s third boat lost by a slightly smaller 10-second gap after finishing its race in 6:17.11.
The lightweight team was again swept on Sunday in the Subin Cup in Leonia, N.J. The first eight finished the 2,000-meter race in 6:35.5, about nine seconds behind Columbia. The second boat completed the course in 6:43.8, about 14 seconds off the Lions’ time, and the third varsity eight crossed off the line over 42 seconds off the lead with a finish time of 7:24.1. The four also had a tough showing, finishing the race in 8:07.6, 25 seconds behind Columbia.
“For the first 1,000 meters of the race, we’re right there going stroke for stroke with Columbia, then things unraveled,” Healey said of the second varsity boat.
The heavyweight team’s race was also moved due to inclement weather, forcing the Big Green to travel to St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., for the Bill Cup, which pitted the team against BU and Rutgers.
The team is tired of traveling, Ryan O’Hanlon ’17 said.
The heavyweight team came second to BU in all four of the races. The first varsity eight finished the 200-meter course in 6:34.0, just under 13 seconds behind BU.
“Given where we think we are and where we’ve stacked up with competition, we shouldn’t be losing by 12 or 13 seconds,” O’Hanlon said. “We did have a tough race, but it’s also a sign that we need to be improving.”
The second varsity eight came in with a time of 6:37.9, almost 20 seconds behind the Terriers. The third boat finished in 6:57.5 and the fourth varsity in 6:53.0, 23 and 15 seconds, respectively, after BU.
After BU’s top boats dominated Rutgers, Darmouth’s first three boats took on the Scarlet Knights. The heavyweight team swept the competition, easily winning all of its races.
The first boat notched a race time of 7:02.8, about 16 seconds better than Rutgers. The split between the second boats was even wider, with Dartmouth finishing in 6:49.2 and the Scarlet Knights in 7:32.3. The third boat won by nearly 26 seconds, coming in with a time of 7:22.6.
The team expects to continue to improve now that the Connecticut River has thawed.
“There would be giant icebergs floating down the river and insane currents that would move the boat backwards,” O’Hanlon said of previous training conditions.
The women are back in action this weekend, as are the heavyweights. The women face off against the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University for the Class of 1984 Plaque, and the heavyweight team will be back on the water this Saturday in Providence, R.I., to compete against Brown University in the Atalanta Cup. The lightweights have a week to train before hosting Cornell on May 3.
