Women's open eight team keys successful weekend for crew

For crew, this time of year is supposed to be the off-season. Autumn days are an opportunity for outdoor training before heading inside for winter workouts. Dual meets, Ivy League matchups and Eastern Sprints are nearly six months away. But for two surreal days in October in Boston, all of that fades away.

Princeton entered eight boats in the prestigious Head of the Charles regatta over the weekend. For the Tigers, the last race of the weekend turned out to be the most impressive. In the championship flight of the women's varsity open eight, Princeton took second place. U.S. Rowing, the American national team, won the race outright, edging the Tigers by a mere nine seconds.

Princeton did win the collegiate crown within the race, beating their nearest competitor — Ohio State — by 27 seconds.

"We are fired up," junior Sasha Suda said. "We were the fastest college boat, which was our goal from the outset. On top of that, the U.S. boat came in fourth at worlds last year, so losing by only nine seconds is an accomplishment."

Though starting first with clean water ahead, the open eight squad had to overcome some challenges in the race. After putting some distance between their boat and the one behind, the Tigers had trouble gauging their position in the race.

"It was tough to tell how we were doing once we lost sight of the Michigan boat," Suda said. "The U.S. boat started in the middle of the pack, so there was no way to know which crews were making moves."

The team clearly did not let that affect them in a negative way, and senior coxswain Celeste Powell made sure of that.

"Celeste took a really aggressive path," Suda said. "She cut every turn really tight. I don't think we could have had a faster course."

The men's heavyweight eight had a strong showing as well, placing ninth in the championship race. This contest was also littered with national teams, with four of the top eight places going to non-collegiate crews. Among college boats, the Tigers came in fifth, improving on last year's finish in the college rankings as well as in the overall standings.

Both squads encountered problems as the men also found themselves with some open water in front of and behind them.

"The team showed a lot of maturity in continuing to press even without the outside motivations of racing another crew," junior John Cranston said. "[Cox] Dan Stover had a great course down the river.

"I see our team as one that could potentially have a great year," Cranston added. "At the same time, we are by no means flat out better than our competitors."

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In the lightweight men's race the Tigers placed sixth, a respectable showing, but not what the team had in mind. After placing second last year, the squad had visions of victory.

"Clearly we're disappointed," senior Brian Romanzo said. "The last mile and quarter were not great. But on the bright side, we beat some fast crews and we know some things that we can work on."

Along with simply rowing more together, the lightweight team will try to iron out some immediate kinks for The Chase, this coming weekend's regatta hosted by Princeton.

"We can certainly make some big improvements for the weekend," Romanzo said. "Some stuff will just come with time, but if we take what we learned at the Charles and apply it at The Chase, I think we'll have a strong showing."

The women's lightweight eight did not fulfill their expectations for the weekend either. Due to a stroke of bad luck, one of the girls suffered a serious asthma attack during the race, requiring the team to row with only six oarsmen for over half a mile. The boat ended up in ninth place, dropping six spots from last year's finish.

"We're disappointed with the results," senior Linda Loyd said. "But we also know that this race wasn't a clear reflection of our ability. Things like this happen on occasion and it's part of racing. We just have to focus on the Chase now."

In freshmen racing, the Tigers' heavyweight four were victorious, claiming one of two overall victories for Princeton. The other was won by the openweight four, also in the freshmen division.

Princeton's regular men's heavyweight four came in fifth, and the regular women's open four took 13th.