Crew: Men’s, women’s crews look to avenge past defeats at season-ending regattas

Both the women’s lightweight and open teams earned silver at the EAWRC Sprints last year. The varsity eight team came behind the top seed, Wisconsin, to clinch second place. The varsity four showed excellent form and composure to grab gold, beating Radcliff by more than three seconds. This year, the lightweight women will be looking to top Wisconsin, the defending champion. Earlier in the season, the Tigers defeated Wisconsin impressively at the PAC-10 Women’s Challenge.

“We’re all really excited for sprints this weekend,” sophomore Alex Morss said. “We have a lot of seniors in the boat with lots of experience, so they set a good example in terms of preparing and staying calm for a big race. We’ll focus on rowing our own race and keeping our heads in the boat. We haven’t won Sprints in a few years, so that’s definitely motivating everyone.”

Similarly, the women’s open team found itself in a tight battle with second-seed Yale in the varsity eight, and was held off by less than a second to take silver. Coming off a successful, 13-win regular season — which included a victory over the defending NCAA champion, Virginia — the Tigers are prepared for their challengers, including Yale.

“This entire year we have been focusing on development and working toward the championship season together,” senior Catherine Parkhurst said. “This season has been full of line-up changes and fierce interteam competition for our boats which has maintained a team-wide aggressive attitude toward racing. We know that our competition will be strong but we are prepared and we are ready to lay it out on the line.”

The men will be equally motivated to face off against their competitors. The lightweight men, who recently lost very close races against Harvard, will face their rivals once again. The Tigers find themselves in a similar position as last year when Harvard ended a 20-race winning streak for the Tigers before sprints, only to see the Tigers win the EARC Championships. Head coach Marty Crotty and his team are looking forward to the chance to repeat this feat, as the Tigers will be trying to hold off Harvard once again.

The men’s heavyweight team was also impressive at last year’s sprints. Going in as the fifth seed, the Tigers’ determination and resilience paid off, as they clinched silver, just behind Harvard. This year, the fourth-ranked Tigers are seeded third going into Sprints, behind Harvard and Wisconsin, but will be aiming to edge out the Crimson for the EARC and Ivy League title.

The women will be racing in Cherry Hill, N.J., while the men will race at Worcester, Mass.