Crew: Men's heavyweights take 1st at Princeton Chase

“It was a lot colder today, but it didn’t affect the water much,” junior lightweight stroke Gordon Eccles said. “In fact it was pretty nice.”

Like many of the fall races in which the crews participate, the Princeton Chase is a headrace, meaning boats primarily race the clock. At three miles in length, the race is also much longer than the 2000-meter races held in the spring.

“Because we start one at a time, we race the boats in front of and behind us, but we’re mostly racing the clock,” junior open Liz Hartwig said.

The lightweight men had a slow start but rallied in the last thousand meters to narrow their time gap behind Harvard to under seven seconds. The Tigers finished in a time of 13 minutes, 22.31 seconds.

“Harvard walked up on us in the first 1000 meters and almost had their bow ball on our stern deck, but we held them all the way around both turns,” Eccles said. “Then we bumped up the rate at the end and walked back a length and a half. I like to see that.”

The open women finished with a time of 14:43.62, placing them 8.45 seconds behind winner Virginia but 9.88 seconds ahead of Ivy League rival Yale, which came in third.

“It’s really fun having so many different teams in the boathouse, but we also have a lot of pride when we’re racing on our own course,” Hartwig said. “We never want to let anyone beat us on our own course.”

The heavyweight men were the top finishers in their division, finishing in a quick 13:09.23 to defeat second — place Cornell by 7.56 seconds and third — place Navy by 9.59 seconds.

“We started off strong, but we ran into a headwind in the second half of the race, which was kind of tough,” sophomore Tommy Lindeman said. “Believe it or not, we actually hit a goose coming around the turn, but we took care of business and won the race.”

The regatta also featured a number of small boat races including the pair, with two participants rowing in the single oar sweeping style, and the double, with two participants each holding two oars and sculling. Princeton notched victories in both events, thanks to a 16:22.98 finish by junior Tyler Nase and senior Steve Cutler in the pair and a 16:07.79 race from juniors Alex Taaffe and Hugh Kohl in the double. Sophomore Cam Smith also secured a small boat title for the Tigers in the single division by navigating the winding course in a time of 17:40.81.

The men’s freshman heavyweight eight and women’s open four also took first in their respective divisions.

The Chase marks the end of fall competition for the Tiger crews, who will soon begin their perennial hibernation, training indoors on rowing machines for the duration of winter. Spring competition will begin in late March.