No. 1 Yale upset in HYP race

Peaking with perfect timing, the men’s lightweight crew made a move for the top ranking as it wrapped up its regular season with a victory on the Charles River this weekend. The men’s heavyweight, women’s open and women’s lightweight crews finished their regular seasons at home on Carnegie Lake, with both women’s teams taking first place. All four crews are ranked in the top five in their respective divisions as they look ahead to the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., on May 18.

The No. 2 men’s lightweight crew won the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton race, defeating No. 1 Yale and No. 8 Harvard to stake its claim to the top ranking. The team won the Goldthwait Cup for its varsity win, returning the cup to Princeton for the first time since 1999. The first varsity team finished in five minutes, 49.0 seconds, with Yale coming in second at 5:51.8. The Tigers have won six straight races after losing their season-opener to Navy, but Yale was awarded the top ranking after defeating Navy earlier in the season.

With several teams still contenders for the championships, the Eastern Championship race promises to be extremely competitive. Yale beat Princeton by 1.2 seconds in the second varsity race and by just 0.3 seconds in the third varsity race. The freshman boat entered the weekend ranked second, but the Tigers finished third against their two biggest rivals, coming in eight seconds behind Yale with a time of 6:06.8.

The No. 5 heavyweight crew was swept in all three varsity races when it battled the No. 2 Bears on Lake Carnegie. Brown won its second-straight Content Cup with its first varsity boat finishing in 5:53.7, ahead of Princeton’s 5:57.1.

“We were right with them for the first half of the race,” sophomore Bradley Werntz said. “We have a few guys still recovering from injuries, and we still have some speed to find. We’ll be right with them by Sprints.”

The freshman boat, ranked second heading into the weekend, captured the Tigers’ only win with a 6:02.3 finish beat Brown by slightly more than three seconds.

The top-ranked women’s lightweight crew completed a perfect regular season Saturday with a win over rival No. 6 Wisconsin on Lake Carnegie, securing its place as the prohibitive favorite heading into the Eastern and IRA championship races. In a regatta featuring eight of the last nine IRA national champions, the first varsity boat finished with a time of 7:06.5, well ahead of Wisconsin’s 7:11.6. Wisconsin picked up the second varsity win, however, crossing the line in 7:10.8 to outpace Princeton’s 7:13.0 finish.

The fifth-ranked women’s open crew also finished its regular season on a winning streak, sweeping George Washington at home on Lake Carnegie for its third-straight win. The first varsity team won by more than 40 seconds, with a finishing time of 6:53.3. The Colonials finished with a time of 7:33.6. The second varsity and first novice boats both finished ahead of George Washington with a margin of more than 25 seconds in the second varsity race. The novice four and lightweight novice four combined to compete in the novice race and picked up another win by a margin of more than five seconds.

“Our race was the final tune-up,” senior Ariel Frost said. “It was the final chance for a complete race before Sprints.”

“This race was dedicated to the seniors,” junior Allie Fishman added. “It was their race on the home course, and it was great to come out with the win.”

With all four crews in the running for the Eastern Championship, May 18 promises to be an exciting day for the Tigers.