The Yale women had a day the likes of which they have not seen for at least a couple decades, tying a nice bow on an undefeated regular season with a convincing win in the Varsity Eight that also nabbed them the Chick Willing points trophy for team performance at the Eastern Sprints. Along the way, they also won the Varsity Four and took bronze in the second Varsity eight, giving them all but a lock on a team NCAA bid.
"Never ? well, not since I've been here," Yale coach Will Porter was quick to add when asked if he could recall a day like this at Sprints. "They did a few years back, in the seventies and eighties, for certain." That doesn't mean Porter was surprised at the outcome. Despite some close races, with each passing week the crew found more speed this spring.
"Look at them, this is a big strong boat" he said as the crew climbed back in their shell after the awards dock celebration. "Once we got some solid water time - everyone had trouble this spring -and were able to spend some time in the boat, they started to find their speed. And they gained confidence; to tell the truth, the race against Princeton made a big difference; we hadn't won that race for years, and although it was a tight race, they were able to hold on to win it. They had confidence going into the Brown race, and found their stride."
With the win in the V8, the Yale eight also won the Ivy Championship, which may be somewhat of a sideshow at the Sprints, but can matter a lot back home.
The Bulldogs needed the win in the V8, because coming into the final, Brown had racked up two extremely solid wins in the 2V and Novice eight, and the points trophy came down to the last race. The Brown squad took two golds, a silver and a bronze; not a bad day despite the heartbreaker when the numbers were run. Brown's consistency and depth continues to set the standard not only in the Sprints but nationwide.
In the V8, Princeton took the bronze after a mid-race run at the medals by Radcliffe; with Yale and Brown moving out on the field, the two crews changed position at least three times before the Tigers were able to sneak out a bit very late in the third 500, and that's more or less how it went down to the line. A bit of a slow start hampered Dartmouth's chances at the medals, and after rowing in sixth place for a bit, they were able to edge ahead of sixth place Northeastern by about the halfway point.
Neither Radcliffe nor Dartmouth had too bad a day, with both squads placing crews throughout the finals, and Northeastern seemed to have a solid Sprints overall as well, but it was the Penn crew that defied any "usual suspects" trends in the making with trips to the medals stands for silver in the Novice Eight and gold in the second novice eight.
Although the victor remained the same as each of the last two years as Wisco took the gold, the lightweight eight was a satisfying departure from the runaway victories of the last couple Sprints - the five-boat final was a blur of red, orange, blue and black four across for much of the first half of the race before Wisco and Princeton began to push away from the field in the third 500. Georgetown gamely drafted the two undefeated crews, but Wisco and Princeton mainly had eyes only for each other; Radcliffe was unable to meet the call, and the three crews pulled away from Radcliffe together through the third 500. Princeton led for fully 1400 meters of the race, but when Wisco drew even crossing the 500 to go mark, you could see the Badgers confidence surge. They punched their way to the finish line almost a length ahead of Princeton to win the new Konrad Ulbrich Trophy, with Georgetown about the same distance behind in third. Radcliffe finished a bit of open water back, with MIT trailing the field by a few lengths of water again.
"The varsity eight race was a real barn burner, and it was very exciting to see out women pull of the win," said Badgers coach Erik Miller. "It is a real honor to win this trophy against such highly regarded rowing programs. I am very proud of the women and it is a very exciting way for us to be entering the IRA Championships."
Most of these lightweight crews will head to the IRA in three weeks, while the open women's crews will await the verdict on NCAA bids later this week. Tremendous luck to everyone going on to another championship.
Finally, happy mother's day to all our favorite rowing moms.
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