Folks…
A good weekend of results for the Blue Crews on Lake Carnegie and the Schuykill River. Navy’s men’s crew teams produced four top-three times to showcase its performance at the 3 – mile Princeton Chase on Lake Carnegie on Sunday. The Yale crew teams also turned in a strong all-around performance.
Men’s LW 8+ Steve Perry’s Navy LWs opened the day with a solid third-place time of 13:27.604 among 31 boats – just 7.919 seconds behind first-place Princeton.
Folks…
A good weekend of results for the Blue Crews on Lake Carnegie and the Schuykill River. Navy’s men’s crew teams produced four top-three times to showcase its performance at the 3 – mile Princeton Chase on Lake Carnegie on Sunday. The Yale crew teams also turned in a strong all-around performance.
Men’s LW 8+ Steve Perry’s Navy LWs opened the day with a solid third-place time of 13:27.604 among 31 boats – just 7.919 seconds behind first-place Princeton.
The Bulldogs were 4.1 seconds back of the Mids in fourth place. In the Varsity Eights, the “Yale A” boat finished with a time of 13:33.527, behind Princeton’s winning time of 13:19.685. However, in a positive sign for overall team strength, the “Yale B” boat finished in sixth place with a time of 13:38.880–just five seconds behind the “Yale A.” Usually, the difference in time between the A and B or B and C boats is around 20 seconds, to Sunday’s competitive results are a positive sign for the future for the Yale lightweights. The “Yale C” boat came in 20th place with a time of 14:15.536. Navy’s other boats finished 12th [14:00.173], 19th [14:11.508] and 25th [14:46.005].
With most all of the EARC LW squads competing at Princeton, Fall bragging rights were at stake as well as validation of last weeks HOCR in Boston. The order of finish — top ten:
Princeton A 13:19.685
Harvard A 13:23.708
Navy A 13:27.604
Yale A 13:33.527
Columbia A 13:33.998
Yale B 13:38.880
Delaware A 13:40.746
Cornell A 13:41.785
Georgetown A 13:44.592
Cornell B 13:51.210
Other A Boats that finished lower — Dartmouth – 13th [14:02.448]; Pennsylvania – 15th [14:05.946]; and MIT [14:06.609]. Because coaches and squads look to fall racing differently, there is no direct correlation to Spring results. There is however every indication that EARC LW racing will be as competitive as ever come late March.
“For us, the fall is a chance to slow the process down and work on the fundamentals,” said Yale 150 head coach Andrew Card. “Fall is a sort of ‘spring training’ where we work on bunting, backing up throws, the basics. The Chase was a nice test for us. We did well in some parameters, made good progress in some areas, but still have plenty of room to improve.”
“Regardless of where other teams finish, it is interesting to see the intra-squad competition,” said Card. “Right now we are focused on Yale, we aren’t looking for external validation from the results. We know where we’re going, and that’s the most important thing.”
Men’s Freshman LW 8+ The Plebes finished second out of 15 boats in the freshmen eight race with a 14:14.646 showing, some 16 seconds back of the winning Harvard Freshmen [13:58.086]. Yale Freesh took fifth [14:33.965] and tenth places [15:00.777]. Similar to the upperclassmen intra-squad competition, the same was to be found in the Freshman Eights race as well. The “Yale A” boat finished ahead of the tenth place “Yale B” boat that had reportedly been beating the A’s at practice.
Men’s LW 4+ Navy was third among 39 boats with a 14:58.688 clocking in the varsity four event. After 3 miles, Yale was only 0.330 seconds [some 5 feet] behind the Mids in fourth. Looks like it was a fun race as Yale started immediately ahead of Navy and the crews battled throughout. Yale had a 6.7 second lead at the interim “Princeton Split”. Navy recovered that distance as well as the small lead margin in the final 8+ minutes. Princeton finished first [14:47.608] and Harvard second [14:48.045]
Navy’s B Boat placed 13th [15:44.220]. The Elis other fours finished eighth [15:21.828], tenth [15:24.317] and 38th [17:41.041] , with Yale C leading Yale B by 2.5 seconds.
Men’s Varsity HW 8+ Forty crews raced in the varsity eight event, and the Yale heavyweight varsity took second in a time of 13:21.286. The Princeton varsity finished first in 13:18.686. The Yale varsity posted the fastest first split (7:27.975) but lost ground on Princeton during the second half of the race. Columbia was third (13:23.475), Boston University fourth (13:26.967) and Cornell was fifth (13:27.063).
Navy HW Varsity placed ninth with a time of 13:41.996.
In the same event, the Yale second varsity finished 17th in a time of 14:00.828. This placed them in fifth among second varsity crews (behind BU, Princeton, Cornell and Columbia).
Navy B finished 23rd, sixth among second varsities [14:10.114].
The third varsity completed the three-mile course in a time of 14:09.267 to put them in 21st. Among third varsity crews in the event, the Yale eight finished second behind Cornell. They also finished .368 seconds ahead of the Georgetown varsity.
Navy C finished 30th, fourth among third varsities [14:28.638], back of Princeton C and ahead of Pennsylvania C.
Men’s Freshmen HW 8+ Rob Friedrich’s Plebes took second out of 17 crews in the freshmen eight race [14:04.276] trailing only the winning Princeton Tigers [13:41.157]. Navy’s 2nd Boat [14:38.944] finished a strong 7th, leading the B Fleet.
The Yale freshman eight finished fifth in the event after Princeton, Navy, Columbia and Boston University. They completed the course in a time of 14:22.600.
Men’s Varsity HW 4+ The varsity four event saw Yale crews finish third (14:58.389), 12th (15:36.963), 16th (15:48.868) and 40th (16:18.375). Equipment malfunctions plagued the trailing Bulldog four.
The Midshipmen finished ninth out of the 50 crews in the varsity four race with a time of 15:30.661. Navy’s other entries placed 14th [15:43.619] and 36th [16:12.139].
Women’s Varsity 8+ The Yale women’s crew team finished its fall season with a strong win at Princeton. The Bulldogs took first, sixth, 13th and 35th place in the Women’s Varsity Eight. The first place finish for the “Yale A” boat signifies a “three-peat” for the Yale women at the Princeton Chase. The Bulldogs with a winning time of 14:46.323, were more than two seconds ahead of second-place finisher UVA, the NCAA runner-up in the Varsity Eight last year. Third and fourth place finishers Princeton and Brown were well off the pace with times of 15:02.822 and 15:29.869 respectively. Virginia led the Elis at the interim Princeton Split by 8.61 seconds. The Yale women were nearly 11 seconds faster to the finish.
In fifth place, the “UVA B” boat was able to edge out the “Yale B” boat [15:33.630] by just 0.57 of second. The other two Yale entries in the race finished in 13th [15:56.114] and 35th place [16:41.16] among 55 boats.
“The Chase is a great event,” commented Yale Coach Will Porter. “It gives us the feedback we need before we go into winter training. Based on today’s performances we have plenty to get to work on. We need to improve our fitness and our strength as a team.”
“I look forward to getting indoors,” said Porter. “Our tanks are the best in the country; we are lucky. I cannot wait to get to work on a little Yale indoor rowing- Y.I.R.T!”
Small Boats At The Princeton Chase this event includes an eclectic mix of men and women, HW and LW, in straight pairs [2-], as well as double [2x] and single [1x] sculling competitors rowing over a 2.75 mile course.
In the small boats race, Yale 150s threw together five combinations of pairs, and finished in 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 28th places. For the lightweights, the event was a fun way to try out several different boatings. If you take a quick look at the Yale entries, one may think that Coach Andy Card pulled in some “ringers” or as they are called in sail boat racing — “rock stars”.
12th – Yale Mens 2- (Bud Abbott, Lou Costello)
14th – Yale Mens 2- (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
15th – Yale Mens 2- (Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels)
In 12th no indication of “Who’s in Bow” and 15th whether the boat was stroked from the “Right” or “Left”.
You can review full results at: http://secure.powerhousetiming.com/powerhouse/webpages/raceResults.jsp?raceId=239
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Early in the weekend, the Navy women’s crew team produced a pair of top-three finishes to highlight its performance at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta on a soggy Saturday afternoon.
In the championship eight event, the Midshipmen finished third out of 19 boats and second among collegiate crews with a time of 15:07.0167 over the 2.5-mile course. The Vesper Boat Club won the race with a [14:46.2867], followed by Drexel [15:04.8767].
Less than an hour before, Navy came away victorious among the club eight race field of 19 boats. The Midshipmen crossed the finish line in 15:30.6967, more than 16 seconds ahead of second-place Lafayette.
The Mids opened the day by placing ninth among 28 teams in the novice eight race with a time of 17:44.0900. Penn led all crews with a 16:36.5133 performance in the event.
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For more detail see articles from Yale and Navy Sports below. As always, www.row2k.com has other related stories and a full gallery of photos.
And for Luke, and others who might be interested, I have also included an article on the Harvard LWs at the Princeton Chase from The Harvard Crimson.
Next up for the Blue Crews:
The Yale lightweights will finish up their fall season next weekend with the Green Monster in Hanover, NH
The Navy heavyweight and lightweight men will conclude the fall rowing season with their Plebes competing at the Virginia Invitational on Saturday, Nov. 7.
The Navy Women will conclude their fall rowing season next Saturday, Oct. 31, when they travel to the Head of the Occoquan Regatta in Fairfax, VA.
This ends the fall season for the Yale heavyweight crews. Racing picks up again in the spring on Mar. 27 at Derby against Brown.
The Bulldog Women will open their spring season on March 27th with races against Penn and Columbia in Philadelphia.
Navy Lightweights open the Spring season against Princeton in the Murtaugh Cup on the Severn River.
Navy HWs will open competition April 9 and 10 at the George Washington Invitational on the Potomac River in DC.