Dominant performance for rowers at home regatta

The women's crew didn't do too much fooling around out on the water Saturday. They certainly had fun, laughing and joking with each other, but they had the most fun sweeping the competition at their home regatta.

The No. 1 open crew had good reason to be excited after every boat posted a decisive victory over the Georgetown, Columbia and Rutgers squads.

The varsity eight had a very strong showing and an easy win over their opponents. They crossed the finish line with a commanding 22.4 second lead, to finish in six minutes, 21.8 seconds. The Lions came in second at 6:44.2.

Although the entire crew had an excellent day, the novice eight had a fantastic showing, as they came in at 6:32.9, defeating Columbia's frosh by a margin of 32.3 seconds.

Senior captain Devan Darby was proud of her squad, but especially the freshmen. "[They] have proved their speed twice this year, now," Darby said. "They still have a ways to go and more speed to find, but a win is always good."

The second novice boat also showed strength in their first win of the season, beating out Georgetown and two Columbia boats with a time of 7:41.7.

Princeton's second varsity boat only faced Rutgers and Columbia, and they pulled out a good victory with a time of 6:37.1.

The closest race for the open crew came from the competition among the varsity four boats. The Tigers' boat with the narrowest margin of victory, the varsity four took the race by seven seconds, which is about two boat lengths to finish at 7:33.6.

Princeton's varsity B four defeated the Scarlet Knights by a margin of 15.3 seconds.

Despite the winning weekend, the women don't plan to coast through the week. "We will still train hard like we always do," Darby said.

Lightweight races

While the No. 3 lightweight crew had a good showing at the regatta, head coach Paul Rassam still feels there is a lot that needs to be accomplished at practice this week.

"We had a solid weekend, but we need to do better across the board," Rassam said.

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Though sparing praise, Rassam was impressed by his varsity four's race against Bucknell. It was the closest race for any Princeton boat in any crew this weekend .

Despite racing against an openweight Bucknell program, giving the advantage of strength to Bucknell's side, the Tigers were able to pull away in the last 500 meters, especially during their sprint.

Captain Kim Nakamaru was also happy with the fours race. "Our composure and confidence were the keys to the race," Nakamaru said.

The varsity four finished in 7:55.6, 3.8 seconds faster than the Bison's boat.

The second four also performed admirably, staying with Bucknell and the first four for most of the race. The second four finished 7.4 seconds behind the Bison, with a time of 8:07.0.

The varsity eight continued Princeton's domination of the regatta. Even though the boat has a young, brand-new line up, the five sophomores and three juniors rowing defeated Bucknell by 9 seconds for to finish at 7:15.3.

Senior Nicole Larrea, the coxswain for the first varsity boat, said the race wasn't perfect, but it was a step in the right direction.

Rassam has similar feelings. Speed and moves are his main concerns, so the team can expect a lot of hard work this week.

"It's a brand-new lineup, but we're going to have to go a lot faster," Rassam said. He is confident that the speed will come with hard work. Hopefully, the speed will be there for a rematch against Radcliffe at next weekends' Knecht Cup. The cup is a big race for the team, and Rassam hopes his team will be able to give a really hard push at the races next Saturday.

Rassam also saw things he wants his novice eight to work on for the Knecht. Coming in 8.1 seconds behind the Bison varsity eight, the novice eight got off to a good start, but Rassam saw some rhythm and technical issues the women will need to work on before next weekend.

Both the openweight and lightweight crews race again on Saturday. The openweights will compete for the Class of '75 Cup at Carnegie Lake, while the lightweights compete in Camden, NJ for the Knecht Cup.