After losing a tough first race against No. 2 Brown to start the season, the women's open varsity eight boat has bounced back, dominating its competitors. This past weekend, the Tigers showed their rebounding skills once more as they narrowly defeated No. 4 Virginia and No. 8 Yale in a weekend of mixed results for Princeton crew. The heavyweights fell to Harvard while the lightweight men trounced both Penn and Navy.
Early on Saturday at Lake Carnegie, it looked like Virginia would do what Brown had done to Princeton's women's open team earlier — sweep practically all the races — as the Cavaliers won early and often. In the first varsity four race, the Tigers, who had started strong, soon lost pace with the Cavaliers, who steadily increased their lead and won by 15 seconds.
"UVA was ranked No. 4," freshman Lia Pernell said. "We knew it was going to be tough."
Princeton's spirits were confirmed in the second varsity boat competition as it lost by two seconds.
Everything, however, would change in the varsity eight boat. The first 500 meters was owned by UVA and Princeton, as they jumped out to a lead over the Elis. At about the halfway mark, however, Yale made a push to pull practically even with the Cavaliers. Princeton held just about a one-seat lead over its competitors. Princeton would hold this slim lead through the next 500 meters while the Elis pulled slightly ahead of the Cavaliers. With 450 meters to go in the race, Yale sprinted to pull even,with the Tigers.
Final push
"Yale got momentum after walking through UVA," Pernell said. "They came surging after us, which made for a very scary race."
Princeton would answer, making one final sprint of its own, a sprint that enabled the Tigers to edge Yale in a time of six minutes, 55.30 seconds.
The men's heavyweights, meanwhile, traveled to Harvard to take on No. 4 Harvard, No. 16 Northeastern and MIT. The No. 5 men's varsity eight boat, which was undefeated coming into this weekend, suffered its first loss at the hands of the Crimson as it finished second in the field.
Terrible weather conditions that included intense rain and fierce winds prompted officials to alter the contest. Racing a shorter course of 1,850 meters, the teams engaged in "head-style" racing as the four boats raced single file with a minute separating each crew. The head-style served to change the racing dynamic.
"The head-race format had somewhat of an impact," senior Dan Kemp said. "What the other boat does in head-to-head racing, especially off the start, can sometimes affect what your boat does in a race."
Racing in this atypical style, Harvard was able to defeat the Tigers, finishing about three seconds ahead of Princeton's 5:31.8 finish.
Close encounters
The second varsity and first freshmen contests were each declared "dead heats" as they both tied Harvard.
The lightweights had a much easier time handling their competition, Penn and Navy, as they won every race they entered. The No. 4 varsity eight boat, which had defeated Cornell but had fallen to a co-ranked No. 1 Rutgers squad, had no trouble toppling Penn and Navy.
Though Navy fell behind fairly early in the race, Penn hung close to the Tigers. With 750 meters gone by, however, Princeton made a push and never looked back, dominating the rest of the race.
"We were pretty much in the driver's seat," sophomore Scott Dias said.
The Tigers cruised to the finish in a time of 6:15.81, almost 12 seconds ahead of Penn's 6:27.28 time and almost 25 seconds faster than Navy.
The second varsity eight boat and the freshmen crew also won handily while the third varsity boat, in a closer contest, edged Navy.
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