Sunday, April 15, 2007

Knecht Cup Eights - They're Baaaack

There was no shortage of questions coming into the eights event at the Knecht Cup - could Georgetown maintain its slight 1 second edge over Radcliffe, how fast would Wisconsin be in its first race of the year, and could any other eights stay up with the three Sprints schools?

Heat 1 looked like a rowover for Wisconsin, and so it proved to be as the Badgers finished 29 seconds ahead of the Radcliffe 2V, with Buffalo finishing another 4 seconds back. Needless to say, Wisconsin was in control from the start.

Heat 2 quickly became a two boat race between Radcliffe and Georgetown. Radcliffe pulled away in the second half as the Hoyas, clearly executing a race plan, cruised to the finish rowing low and long. A moderately surprising Duquesne boat finished third to knock Lehigh out of the grand final.

By the time of the late day final, it was clear that Wisconsin was the crew to beat, and that Georgetown and Radcliffe had bigger worries than who was the fastest between them. Ultimately, the final played out like one more year tacked on to Groundhog Day, with the Radcliffe and Georgetown boats filled with Phil Connerses, praying to wake up from their nightmare. By the 1000 meter mark Wisconsin was ahead to stay, winning the event by 11 seconds. Georgetown and Radcliffe had a battle going for a while, until the Hoyas pulled away to take second, 12 seconds ahead of the Black and White. The Radcliffe 2V took fourth, followed by Buffalo and Duquesne.

Wisconsin hasn't actually won Knecht since 2002, reflecting what has been traditionally a late starting crew. At this point, I would normally talk about how little time Wisconsin has on the water this early in the season, and it holds true for this year as well. Because of the squirrelly weather, though, I'm not sure if it's been much less than the other northern crews. Has Wisconsin become an early starting crew, or has the water time simply evened out? Or, even more frightening, are the Badgers off to their usual slow start with the usual amount of speed yet to be gained?

The Georgetown-Radcliffe duel also proved to be anticlimactic, as the Hoyas opened up space between themselves and the Black and White. Radcliffe continues to have a bumpy season, reflective of the rebuilding effort going on in Cambridge.

Turning to the freshmen, the Radcliffe eight continued to dominate, winning the event by 12 seconds over Princeton, which was 3 seconds ahead of Wisconsin [and] Georgetown[, who crossed the line in a virtual dead heat. (The official results incorrectly reported Georgetown's time.)] and Philadelphia rounded out the field. Princeton and Wisconsin also made it to the grand final of the heavy frosh eight event, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Wisconsin's performance at Knecht was impressive, if not entirely unexpected. Things were a bit more interesting on the West Coast however, and we may need to rethink the rankings...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just thought I'd comment that the Georgetown freshmen did not "round out the field." They finished within a second or so of Wisconsin, and several spectators thought they finished 3rd. Unfortunately, results show that the Georgetown novice 8 finished 16 seconds after Wisconsin, so...

Anonymous said...

I would like to confirm what has already been written. Georgetown freshmen did not, as you say, "round out the field" at Knecht. They finished within a second of Wisconsin--the bow balls of the two boats were close enough that many spectators even assert it should have been a photo finish. Nevertheless, the times were fallaciously recorded, leading people to believe they finished 16 seconds after Wisconsin. I guess we'll just have to see what happens when the Hoya frosh taken on Wisconsin in Ohio...

Anonymous said...

I think a lot of crews are probably experiencing what Wisconsin goes through every year: lack of water time and erg depression. While this makes Wisconsin look faster to start off, I think we will see all the crews crescendo through the spring as they gain more water time. This also probably increases Wisco's chances of winning because they are used to this while other crews are not.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone shed some light to who Wisconsin is rowing in their ltwt 4s at Midwest Championships. It looks like they are racing bow 4 from the 8 and stern 4 from the JV8 in the Open 4 race. In the ltwt 4 race it appears to be their ltwt novice 8 split up. Anyone have more concrete info.

Anonymous said...

I heard the Wisconsin coach telling somebody that Wisco had been on the water 18 times before Knecht Cup (including spring break), and hadn't rowed since Tuesday the week of Knecht. I don't know what the weather has been like for the rest of the schools, but I doubt many other crews have spent less time on the water.