WORCESTER, Mass. - The Cornell lightweight rowing team concluded competition on Lake Quinsigamond at the Eastern Sprints Regatta on Sunday afternoon with a fifth-place finish in the V8 Grand Final and a runner-up result in the 2V8 Petite Final.

Cornell placed second in its morning V8 heat with a time of 5:51.269 to advance to the Grand Final, narrowly trailing Penn and finishing ahead of MIT, Georgetown, and Columbia. In the afternoon Grand Final, the Big Red battled with the top crews, placing fifth in 5:51.951 in a race where less than two-tenths of a second separated third through fifth place.

"The varsity had a great heat taking second to advance to the grand final. In the final, we did not have our best start and found ourselves at the back of the pack, but put together a great closing 500 meters to battle back into medal contention. Although we were on the wrong side of such a close finish, .12 off bronze and .07 off 4th. We have made a tremendous amount of improvement this season." Tyler Nase, the Henry E. Bartels '48 Head Coach of Lightweight Rowing mentioned.

The Big Red's 2V8 boat opened the regatta in the second heat, finishing fifth in 6:05.446 against a competitive field that featured Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Yale. Cornell later responded in the Petite Final with a second-place finish, crossing in 6:16.837 behind Columbia and ahead of Yale and MIT to close out the weekend.

"The JV had a great start in the heat but fell off the pace. In the petite final, we had a more conservative start and gave up some seats, but settled into a great rhythm.  We were in third for the majority of the race, but had a final gear to move through Yale to take second. That was a fantastic result for us considering that Yale beat us in the morning heat and MIT beat us earlier in the season.", Nase added.

"Both crews beat their seeding this weekend. Varsity was seeded sixth and placed fifth. The JV was seeded 10th and finished eighth. Each boat had some great moments this weekend. Overall, the team learned a lot this weekend. I'm proud of this crew and excited to keep working with them.", Nase concluded with.

Full results can be found HERE

Cornell Boat Lineps:

Varsity 
Rhea Kaycee 
Gabe Xu 
Max Purcea
Nate Bechard
Colin Bailey 
Teddy Holtman 
Cruz Edman 
Eliott Swinney 
Owen Brown 

JV 
Alex Califano 
John Mayer 
Sam Peale 
Evan Yang 
Nicholas Hlinka 
Francis Lau 
Neekon Tabatabai 
Alessandro Zanni 
Nate Santaniello