Photos
The fall racing season for the Cornell crews kicked off at the Stonehurst Capital Invitational Regatta in Rochester, N.Y. At this particular race, crews compete in a morning three-mile head race and come back for a 1500 meter head-to-head piece in the afternoon. The 1500-meter time is multiplied by three and added to the head piece time to determine the day's winners.
The women were mixed up into two eights and a four. The four was the most successful, finishing close behind Syracuse's entry to place second. The eights had a tougher go of it, finishing sixth and tenth, right in the middle of the "A " boat finishes. All boats raced well, but the eights didn't have enough depth and skill to compete with Radcliffe and Syracuse's top boats.
The Head of the Charles was held on the Charles River in Boston, Mass., on October 21. The weekend was, as always, a whirlwind of racing, passing crews, clashing oars, and seeing familiar faces. The women's crew raced both a Championship 8+ and Championship 4+ this year. In the eight, last year's undefeated novice crew raced almost intact and did a great job racing from the back of the pack. They passed two crews, getting stuck around the outside of the turn as they passed the first one and pinched into a bridge abutment and clashing oars as they passed the other. They finished 22nd, not bad for the youngster's first shot at the big time.
The women also raced a crew in the Championship 4+. This boat was made up of three of last year's 2V'ers and Lori Davias, who is back for her senior year after taking last year off to do research in Venezuela. These guys also did some passing and smashing, in the process out classing most of the field and finishing sixth overall, second among U.S. colleges. Kudos to Annette Grew, Kinsey Keller, Megan Davis, Lori and Trisha DiGiore!
The Princeton Chase was held on October 28th in Princeton, N.J. As many of you know, the Chase is great because most athletes get to race twice. For their second outing of the day, a few of the strongest athletes chose to test their skills in the small boats race. That gave some up-and-comers the chance to race in the first boat for the eights event. Although they weren't at the same level as the other crews' top lineups, they rowed their best piece and put up one heck of a fight.
This is the first fall when I've worried less about boating the fastest crew and more about developing the future stars. Our finishes took a hit as a result (I think the best placing was from the mixture four at ninth), but I learned a lot about the athletes and they learned a lot about what they need to do between now and the spring time.
On the novice end, racing began at the Head of the Fish in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Three crews raced in the open (not novice) 8+ and finished solidly in eighth, thirteenth, and twenty-first places out of thirty-six crews.
The freshman then traveled to Princeton to race at the Belly of the Carnegie, where two even novice eights finished 5th and 10th. Although they didn't finish at the top of the heap, I was impressed by their intensity and crankability on the racecourse, it will be exciting to watch them go after it in the spring.