Sentimental seniors say goodbye to Carnegie as crews prepare for Easterns

Almost a month later, the lightweight men's crew was still up to the task.

Poor weather conditions on Lake Carnegie forced the postponement of its original April 6 race against Georgetown. Rescheduled to race this past Saturday, the lightweights joined the heavyweight men, the lightweight women and the women's open crew for the last regattas before Eastern Sprints and the last home races on Lake Carnegie for the seniors.

In the men's lightweight competition, Georgetown and Princeton both started strongly. The Hoyas, however, soon lost pace with the Tigers — falling about seven seats back after the first 500 meters and a boat length behind at the halfway mark. Princeton continued to build on this lead in the second half of the race, pushing further ahead of Georgetown and crossing in a time of five minutes, 48.8 seconds — about nine seconds faster than the Hoyas.

Confidence builder

"We stuck to our game plan and it worked out," senior captain Bill Fedyna said. "The race gave us good confidence for Sprints."

The heavyweights, however, could not capture a victory against a powerful Brown boat. Although they stayed with the Bears early on, the Tigers were unable to keep step with Brown, falling behind after about a minute and a half.

From there, Brown continued to increase its lead. Although Princeton pushed the last 500 meters, the Tigers failed to catch the Bears, who crossed the finish about eight seconds ahead of Princeton's 5:52.3 time.

"We had a pretty good piece," senior captain Dave Bordeau said. "They were just the better crew. We have to really work hard to catch up to them [at Eastern Sprints]."

The women's open team, however, had no trouble handling George Washington, Fordham and Georgetown, winning the varsity eight race convincingly.

The Tigers cruised to a victory in a time of 6:42.8 — about 20 seconds faster than the second-place Colonials.

"I think that this race serves as excellent preparation for this weekend," senior captain Kristin Bartges said. "We've got our job cut out for us at Sprints — we're fortunate to have a piece like this under our belts. As a boat, I really feel like we're pulling together."

In the varsity four race, the Tigers also looked strong, capturing both first and second place with times of 7:51.9 and 8:11.0, respectively.

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The women's lightweight varsity eight boat, meanwhile, proved its ability to race with any type of boat this weekend. Because neither Georgetown nor George Washington brought a lightweight varsity eight boat, the Tiger lightweights raced in the women's open J.V. competition with Princeton, the Hoyas and the Colonials.

Quick off the start, the lightweights moved past the Georgetown and George Washington boats early in the contest. The Tiger J.V. boat, however, pushed ahead of the lightweights.

The J.V. would finish about two seconds ahead of the lightweights' time of 6:57.2.

"We worked really hard to stay with the [Princeton] J.V. boat," sophomore Linda Loyd said. "We were really pleased with our race."

The women's crew teams will return to action this weekend in New Preston, Conn., for the annual Eastern Association of Women's Rowing College Sprints. The men's teams will resume their racing in two weeks in Worcester, Mass., at the Eastern Association of Rowing College Sprints.