First Shots Are Fired!

The first shots of the 2006 spring season were fired at the Head of the Charles Regatta last weekend. Once again, Wisconsin and Princeton were the top contenders, with the Badgers besting the Tigers in the lightweight eight by 14 seconds. Radcliffe was another 11 seconds back with Georgetown another 20 seconds away. If looks count for anything (and they don't), Wisco and Radcliffe take the honors, as both boats looked smooth and controlled about 500 meters from the finish.

Just entering an eight was a victory of sorts for Radcliffe as they had trouble scraping together eight varsity rowers last year and only entered the four (which they won, by the way). In one of those ridiculously titled articles (Harvard Dominates Head of Charles Regatta - uhh, Princeton, hello?) in the Crimson, the Radcliffe lights talk about the depth of the team this year. Is this a sign that Radcliffe will challenge Wisconsin and Princeton in the spring? Stanford didn't come east this year, so that program remains a mystery for the time being.

In the fours, Princeton came out on top of the American collegiate crews, beating Cal, CMU, Villanova, Radcliffe (which suffered a 1 minute penalty), and Fairfield. Perhaps this suggests that Princeton has some closely matched rowers and some hard spring seat racing will really draw out the boat speed.