Princeton - Bucknell Heavies

The Bucknell heavyweights showed up to race the Princeton lightweights today, winning by 10 seconds. Reports from the race suggest this was a typical lightweight vs heavyweight race - Princeton shot out at the start, rowing high, to take 3 or 4 seats, during the body Bucknell moved out on Princeton while understroking them by 3 or 4 strokes, Princeton moved back a bit in the sprint with Bucknell recovering the seats with their own rate increase. Apparently Princeton looked a bit more together than last year, while still suffering from an inability to lengthen. Official results note, and spectators confirm, that the headwind was strongest during the 1V race, creating a bit of an advantage for the heavyweights. The 2V fought a seesaw battle but with the heavy 2V staying alongside at a lower rate, the outcome (a Princeton loss by a little more than 2 seconds) was a foregone conclusion. The Princeton light frosh, meanwhile, handily won by 26 seconds.

This was a good first race for Princeton because it was a gimme. The meaning of the result is unclear because they raced a heavyweight boat (which contained 2 members of last year's IRA boat). While I still suspect that by the end of the year the IRA champ should beat the Bucknell boat, at this stage of the season Bucknell was racing for the third time while Princeton heard their first shots fired in anger. Also, with less time together as a crew, power (heavyweights) trumps rate (lightweights). Nonetheless, despite all of the yeah, buts, Princeton is left with a season opening loss, a loss that will add urgency to their training, not complacency. If Princeton is timing its peak properly, this is the kind of first race we might expect from the Tigers. No doubt they'll begin increasing their interval work as they head into the body of their schedule. Next week will tell us more.

We also learned that Bucknell will not race a lightweight boat until IRAs.