Racing This Weekend

The ECAC Metro Regatta is Saturday and there is a seven boat lightweight eight field. St. Joe's is entered, although I thought they had earlier stopped racing an eight and went to a four. Evidently they found some more lightweights. If this is the same boat that raced before, there should be a tight race for first with URI and St. Joe's expected to be faster than most. Next would come Buffalo and Villanova, followed by Marist, UMass, and Holy Cross. Holy Cross is an unknown so could prove to be fast. Many of these boats have met before so this is an opportunity for payback.

In particular, this is a key race for URI. URI is pulling itself into the ranks of serious lightweight programs, and a win here shows how far they've come and how far they plan to go. St. Joe's and Villanova are boats of opportunity, as is Holy Cross, and you really want to beat those boats. Buffalo had been having a good year until their last race, which just wasn't indicative of their real speed. This is a chance to show what they can do. Marist has been close to Buffalo so they should be able to see a potential upset, and UMass can gain some respect. This is a good field for this regatta and there should be some serious racing.

Meanwhile, Saturday's New England Fours Regatta goes begging with only Holy Cross entered in the lightweight event. No other lightweight fours in New England? Perhaps they're all put into eights for the ECAC Metro.

At the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships there is a five boat lightweight four race including Virginia Tech, Penn State, Susquehanna, Carnegie Mellon, and Virginia Commonwealth. I'm not sure we've seen all of these boats race before, but I would think CMU would be the favorite in this race.

MACRAs also take place Saturday. Marietta used to be to MACRAs what Wisconsin is to the Midwest Championships - hosts and dominators. This year, though, it looks like there are only Marietta fours and a pair entered. No reason to care about that here because they're not lightweights, but times have changed. The light eight race at MACRAs is a two boat race between Grand Valley and Ohio State. This is actually listed as a JV/Lightweight race (I hate that) so GV may be a heavy boat. The light four race has Northwestern, Ohio, Ohio State, Grand Valley, and Michigan State. This is a good race with some natural rivalries - OSU and Ohio and Michigan State and Grand Valley - and Northwestern looking for revenge over Grand Valley to whom it previously lost by about 3 seconds. I think OSU should be strong here, but if the four is coming out of the eight it could be a tough race for the Buckeyes since the eight is only about an hour earlier.