Crew: Lightweight men claim Ivy League title, EARC championship

Correction appended

All season, no one could catch the men’s lightweight crew team, which posted an unblemished 7-0 regular-season record.

Nothing about this past weekend changed that.

The No. 1 lightweight boat traveled to Worchester, Mass., for the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) Championships this past weekend and walked away with the Ivy League title and an EARC championship.

Both the lightweight and heavyweight men’s crew teams competed in the EARC Championships, while both women’s teams were off from racing and will be competing in their own championships this weekend.

But this past weekend undoubtedly belonged to the No. 1 lightweight boat.

The lightweight first-varsity race was the last of the day. The Tigers had won all their races on the season by at least three seconds. This would be the final race before IRA Nationals and the one needed to complete an undefeated season. When the gun went off, both Princeton and Yale got out to fast starts, but the Tigers soon edged past the Bulldogs for a three-seat lead. Yale was only about a seat above the rest of the pack, and Harvard quickly overtook the Bulldogs. Still, Princeton had a five-seat lead on the Crimson, and both boats began to pull away from the field.

The Tigers were trying to push out on Harvard, but the Crimson hung on. Princeton maintained its five-seat lead until the 500 mark, at which point the Tigers, finding another gear, upped their lead to an entire length on Harvard.

Princeton pushed harder in the final sprint, earning an insurmountable lead. The Orange and Black rowed through the finish with a time of five minutes, 41.4 seconds, beating the Crimson by a solid 2.5 seconds. Georgetown, Navy, Yale and Cornell closed the race in that order.

The 2V lightweight boat also made its grand final. The Tigers and the Crimson jumped out at the start, but after the opening moments, all the boats were more or less even. Princeton and Yale eventually edged past the field and continued to pass and re-pass each other for a number of lead changes.

Halfway through the race, however, the Bulldogs took a three-seat lead, and the Tigers gradually lost steam over the remainder of the race, allowing Harvard to move into second place.

Yale led coming into the sprint, followed by Harvard, Navy, Princeton, Cornell and Georgetown. Princeton ultimately fell back of the Crimson and the Midshipmen and finished one second behind the Big Red for a fifth-place finish in a time of 6:02.3.

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The first-varsity lightweights will attempt to put the finishing touches on their perfect season during the first weekend of June, when the team travels to Sacramento, Calif., for the 2009 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships.

The heavyweight 1V boat took fifth in a stacked heat, which landed the boat a place in the third-level final.

Princeton roared out to a strong lead that it maintained throughout the race. After crossing the 1500-meter mark, the Tigers had a six-seat lead on the Penn boat, which clung to second place.

By the 1,000-meter mark, the Tigers had extended their lead to open water.

Princeton never looked back en route a winning time of 5:59.3 — good for a four-second cushion on the Quakers. Penn, Yale, Georgetown, Holy Cross and Rutgers closed out the field.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the time, which netted Princeton a 13th-place finish overall, placed Princeton just barely out of the petite final.

The heavyweight 2V boat turned in a solid performance on the weekend as well. In the final, the boat placed into lane six, which was getting the worst of the gusty conditions. Despite the lane disadvantage, the Tigers came out firing on all cylinders.

Going into the second 500, all six boats were dead even. Harvard and Princeton started to fall back on the field, and Brown grabbed the lead before the 1,000-meter mark, with Wisconsin just behind. Cornell had pushed the Tigers into sixth place, but coming into the sprint Princeton turned on afterburners and began to overtake the Big Red — sweet redemption for Princeton’s narrow loss to Cornell a few weeks ago.

The Tigers continued their finishing kick, moving past a Crimson boat that could simply not keep up. Princeton couldn’t catch a distant BU boat, leaving the Tigers to close out the race in fourth place in a time of 5:55.7.

Heavyweight crew will also spend the next month preparing for the IRA Championships.

Both the lightweight women and open crews were off from racing last weekend, but they will compete in their championships this upcoming weekend. The squads will also travel to Sacramento, Calif., in June to compete in the IRA Championships.

Correction

Due to an error added during editing, an earlier version of this article stated that the men's lightweight crew team captured its first EARC championship this weekend. In fact, it has won the championship in the past.