Women's open crew wins all five races at Rutgers

Defeating last year's No. 2 crew in the nation is a hard act to follow. But women's open weight crew made it look easy.

After beginning its season with a bang, open crew kept up the momentum for its second dual victory. The Tigers followed up their huge win March 29 with a victory over Rutgers and Columbia this past weekend. Each race clearly belonged to the Tigers, and only in the top varsity race did Princeton finish fewer than 10 seconds ahead of its competition.

Open crew's previous victory against Michigan and defending Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges Sprints champion Brown gave the team an immediate boost in confidence. Determined not to let that confidence fade, the Tigers made the trip up Route 1 to New Brunswick to face both the Scarlet Knights and the Lions. Though Rutgers and Columbia battled it out for second and third place in each race, it was plain to see who had the dominant crew team.

Because of two curves in the Rutgers course on the Raritan River, each crew began at a different time. This staggered start made it difficult to judge where the crew was in relation to the other boats, according to open coach Lori Dauphiny.

"The course is tricky since you don't know the real margin until the 1100 meter mark," Dauphiny said.

Despite being blind to its position until midway through the race, the Tigers' top varsity boat appeared to hold a comfortable advantage over Rutgers and Columbia.

Senior captain Sasha Suda and senior coxswain Celeste Powell paced their boat, which consists of seniors Lia Pernell, Sallie Langston and Christy Laakman, juniors Kim Taggart and Hannah England, and freshmen Kate Bertko and Caroline Lind.

"We were able to establish an early lead and build on that lead throughout the race," Dauphiny said. "I thought all of our crews looked solid and handled the course and conditions well."

First race sweep

In the first varsity race, which determines the overall winner, the Tigers clocked in at six minutes, 53 seconds. This was nearly 10 seconds ahead of the second-place Lion crew, who posted a time of 7:02.6. The Scarlet Knights finished over three seconds behind the Lions at 7:06.2.

In the other two varsity races, Princeton boasted even wider margins of victory. In the second varsity race, the Tigers came in at 7:09.4 to Rutgers' 7:31.0 and Columbia's 7:39.9. Princeton's four-man varsity boat, at 8:15.2, finished nearly 15 seconds ahead of the Scarlet Knights (8:29.1) and close to a minute ahead of Columbia (9:13.7).

The varsity women were not the only ones dominating the competition in New Brunswick. Both Tiger novice boats chalked up their first victories of the season on Saturday after finishing second to Brown the previous weekend.

Princeton's novice eights crossed the finish line at 7:27.6, with Columbia and Rutgers trailing behind at 7:40.2 and 7:46.6, respectively. In the novice fours, the Tigers took a 20-second win over the Scarlet Knights, 7:38.5 to 7:59.7. The Lions did not enter a boat in that race.

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"The novices demonstrated improved confidence and composure in their racing this weekend," open novice coach Wendy Levash '98 said. "We are gaining the ability to hold on to technical changes under pressure and to race with a more effective rhythm."

All in all, it was a successful weekend for women's open crew. All three varsity boats have defeated four different teams, and the novice boats are also standing up well against their competition.

Next on the agenda for the Tiger open women is battling tough competition from Cornell, Wisconsin, and Radcliffe at home this Saturday. After that race, Princeton will face three Ivy teams — Yale, Penn and Dartmouth — in two weeks.

The team did not compete this weekend after beating Radcliffe, University of California-Davis and Stanford March 29 and 30. They travel to Camden, N.J., on Saturday to race in the Knecht Cup.