Crew: Lightweight men undefeated vs. Penn

In the varsity race, Harvard was dominant from the start, but Princeton contended with MIT for second place. The MIT crew lost to Columbia by a two-second margin last week, whereas Princeton lost to the Lions by a nine-second margin last weekend.

The MIT squad proved to be a difficult test for the first varsity. The two boats were even coming into the sprint, but MIT pulled ahead in the end, claiming a one-second margin over the Tigers, who finished third.

In the second varsity race, Harvard and Princeton dueled it out for the first half of the race, with neither boat gaining a significant edge on the other. The Tigers, however, turned on a move with 750 meters left and took a boat length on Harvard.

But the Crimson wouldn’t back out of the race that easily, and it walked back on Princeton, recovering some of its lost ground. In response, the Tigers turned on their sprint early at the 400-meter mark and took off, regaining and then overtaking their previous margin.

Princeton won in a time of six minutes, 4.8 seconds, four seconds ahead of Harvard.

Harvard’s boat won the third varsity race, crossing the finish line at 6:04.9. The Crimson’s fourth varsity came in second place with a time of 6:13. Both Harvard boats beat out Princeton’s third varsity, which finished with a time of 6:16.0. The freshmen fought a hard race, ultimately losing to Harvard by 5.4 seconds and defeating MIT by nine seconds.

The open women traveled to the Housatonic River in Derby, Conn., to face top-ranked Yale. The first varsity raced a powerful and competitive race, always keeping Yale in check.

In the end, though, Yale squeezed out a three-second margin win over the Tigers. Princeton put together a strong race, coming the closest to catching the Yale first varsity as any crew has all season.

In the following races, the Bulldogs continued their winning streak, beating Princeton by 10.6 seconds in the second varsity race and by a 10.7-second margin in the varsity four race.

In the 3V four events, Yale also had success: The squad claimed first place in the B race by nearly 10 seconds and won the C race by a 37-second margin.

Last weekend, the lightweight men traveled to the Schuykill River to face off against Penn for the historic Wood-Hammond Cup.

In the first varsity race, the Tigers had a shaky start but locked into their rhythm as soon as they moved into the high strokes.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

In the first 500 meters, Princeton took about a length and a half on the Quakers and then continued to walk throughout the race.

The Tigers won the race in a time of 5:46.2, and Penn finished just less than 20 seconds later.

Princeton used this momentum to sweep the rest of the races, winning the second varsity race by 15 seconds and the third varsity race by 11 seconds. The freshmen used dynamic moves to beat Penn by a solid margin of 12 seconds.

“We were happy to have clean race and solid piece for our boat,” senior co-captain Justin Teti said. “As a team, we handled this away race particularly well.”

The lightweight women traveled down to the Potomac River on Saturday to battle Georgetown. In the varsity eight race, Princeton came through the 1,000-meter mark at the bridge behind Georgetown by about half a length.

The Tigers then took a move after the bridge and started to walk through the Hoyas, seat by seat. Though Georgetown was competing at a higher pace, Princeton pushed through the opposition, winning by a length.

Georgetown had two entries in the varsity four race, but that did not stop Princeton from winning in commanding fashion. The Tigers came through the bridge a few seats up on the first Georgetown four and with open water on the second.

Princeton continued to push out, and the squad got open water by the 500-meter mark.

The men’s crews are gearing up for the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints, which will take place on May 10 in Worcester, Mass., and the women’s crews are looking forward to the Eastern Association of Women’s Rowing Colleges Sprints on May 17 on Cooper River in Camden, N.J.