Saturday Races

Although UCF may have suspected psychological warfare, the Golden Knights arrived in Princeton earlier in the week to a swirling snow squall. For some, it was their first glimpse of the white stuff. Unfortunately for both UCF and MIT the reception never really got warmer.

Although the results aren't yet posted, a reader wrote in to say that Princeton won the V8 race by several lengths open, followed by UCF in second, a length ahead of Princeton's 2V in third, which was a length ahead of MIT. Princeton's freshmen beat two MIT frosh boats (great situation for the Engineers to have two frosh boats), despite catching a boat stopping crab during the race. The first heat of the afternoon fours race was taken by Princeton while the second, and faster, heat was won by MIT with Princeton second and UCF third.

This was a race that had a little bit for everyone. Princeton was strong and maintained it's status as favorite. A young UCF crew beat MIT and jumps them in the rankings. MIT showed that they can still put together a formidable four, while the eight is likely suffering from that most curable of problems - early season conditioning. Princeton's 2V, meanwhile, shows that if it were a separate school, it would deserve a ranking easily in the top ten.

In Rhode Island, Radcliffe raced in the 2v event against Bucknell, URI, and BC, finishing fourth. A difficult two weekends for the Black and White as after losing to Georgetown last week, the 1V finishes 20 seconds behind a Bucknell 2V that only beat Princeton's lightweight 2V by a little more than 3 seconds. The Radcliffe frosh continued their dominating ways as they defeated URI and BC heavy freshmen. Bucknell, in what looked like a potential IRA boat, put a light eight on the water for the 3V race, which included Radcliffe's 2V. Bucknell beat the Black and White by 30 seconds (and the URI 3V by 15). It would be nice to see a Bucknell lightweight eight race someone in the top ten so we can see their speed and get them ranked.

With such a dominating freshman boat and a varsity that is struggling a bit, it wouldn't be surprising to see a freshman or two move up to the varsity. It would be unfortunate for that freshman crew, but it's all about the V8.

Duals (and More) This Weekend

Radcliffe heads to Rhode Island on Saturday to meet Bucknell, Boston College, and URI. BC doesn't race lightweights and it appears URI has tossed in the towel, so I don't expect either of those teams to offer lightweight competition for Radcliffe. The information clampdown continues at Bucknell so we'll wait with bated breath to see if the Bison race a light eight or a heavy eight. Although the State Secret is still secure, I expect we'll see a heavy eight and, at this point, this is what I hope to see since a Radcliffe-Bucknell heavies race will give us a means to compare the Black and White with Princeton. Like Princeton's race last week, this will be a bit of a gimme for Radcliffe since they'll probably be racing all heavyweight boats. There will be some added pressure however, to come within Princeton's 10 seconds of the heavies. Conditions can make such a comparison wildly inaccurate, but why let that stop us?

Princeton, meanwhile, is back on the water as UCF and MIT come to visit. This is scheduled to be an all day affair with eights in the morning and fours in the afternoon, but it's not clear if that will happen and who will be in the fours. With UCF's 2006 IRA boat raided by the heavyweights (as we've discussed previously), and MIT only recently moving back onto the national stage in eights, expectations will be high for the Tigers. A stumble here would not be the way to start the lightweight season. Despite the loss of UCF lightweights, I don't exactly think the Golden Knights will be sending scrubs up north to face MIT and Princeton. The boat hasn't been tested yet against top notch lightweight competition, but that doesn't mean it's slow, only unknown. A good showing here sets the stage for the remainder of the season, which includes a Princeton re-match at Windermere. MIT has to be energized to start the season after a good fall campaign. Let's remember that this is a crew that beat Georgetown at the Head of the Charles. Clearly the Engineers have potential and despite being a bit rusty, they'll no doubt be feeling their oats on Lake Carnegie.

Two other duals to note - Lehigh races Drexel (which should be a heavyweight affair) and Cal races Santa Clara. Cal's race with Santa Clara should provide the Bears with a nice gauge of the progress they might be making against Stanford. Well, actually, all we know is that Stanford beat Santa Clara. Since they were timed scrimmage pieces, spreads were not reported.

To go back to UCF for a minute, a reader commented a few weeks ago that the the UCF lightweights that were taken by the heavyweight squad "are not being allowed to return for IRA's." If true, none of UCF's IRA crew will be rowing lightweight this year. As far as I know, the NCAA would allow these rowers to return unless the heavies went to the NCAA championship. Perhaps this is the coach's decision? Or, perhaps the heavies are so certain of a NCAA invite that they just assume the lights can't return. After coming close to an IRA medal last year, it's got to be difficult to spend a season toiling in the heavyweight 2V (a few are no doubt in the 1V) simply so the team can win the consolation prize at regattas (also known as the team championship). Once again we can thank the NCAA for creating the absurdity that causes 2V and 3V four events to be favored over a 1V lightweight event.

2007 Season Preview - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT enters the 2007 season in an unusual position - riding a wave of momentum generated by successes in the eight. It's been a few years since MIT has put its heart into the eight, but they did so last spring and this fall and have some fine results to show for it. Now comes the hard part...

[Update: This is a corrected version of the original post thanks to a reader who was kind enough to provide the actual schedule (as opposed the inaccurate one on the school Web site) in the comments.]

The Engineers open the spring on April 7 at Princeton, vs. the Tigers and UCF. It's always dangerous to make too much out of early races, but this will be a great race. Right out of the gate MIT will get an opportunity to prove itself against two of the best the lightweight league has to offer.

It looks like the Engineers will skip Knecht, choosing to stay at home to race UMass on April 15th. UMass will use this race as a test of their speed and will row hard to provide some incentive for the program to put focus on the light eight. MIT will want to show it can dominate here. The following week the Beavers will take on Radcliffe. As always, this will be an excellent test against the home-town rival who, by the way, MIT handled pretty nicely last November at the Foot of the Charles. There's always a lot of talk after these fall races about who had what boat in what race crewed by which rowers, but the results stand. And they'll stand long enough to make this an interesting race. MIT will be tested pretty well in April.

On May 13th MIT heads south to Camden for Eastern Sprints. By the time the end of the month and IRAs roll around, I'm guessing that the MIT eight (and four) will have proven itself worthy of making a serious push for the grand final. I'll leave it there, but if I rowed for MIT I'd be thinking bigger than making the final.

MIT loses two rowers from last year's IRA boat. The fact that MIT came back last fall with some speed is a promising sign for the depth of the program. You know, rowers are known throughout the academic world as the brainiest of athletes. Doesn't it just make sense then, that MIT should be fast? Not only that, if you're going to chant this cheer, you'd better be fast! Well, I expect to hear that cheer a lot this year. (Races added to calendar)

Finally, through the good graces of Dan Morken in Washington (state, that is), I have MIT's start at the 2006 HOCR for your viewing pleasure (some resolution loss from YouTube). Doesn't the sound of the oars in the oarlocks just make your stomach churn?

MIT Release

There's a nice press release on MIT's web site about the lightweights' performance at the Foot. These articles are always self-serving but I think MIT deserves the positive review. Not too long ago MIT was often unable to field a competitive eight for the championship regattas and would forgo that category for a V4. They could be competitive there, but a fast eight seemed out of their grasp. I think those days are coming rapidly to an end. The Engineers appear to have a fairly deep team this year and Coach Jenkins seems to have a good start on building off of last year's IRA petite final win.

While I'm on the subject of MIT, maybe someone there can clear up an urban legend. The story goes that the architect who designed the MIT boathouse neglected to consider how new and trailered boats would be brought into the boathouse. The result was a turning staircase in the middle of the house and only one way to bring a boat into the bays - from the dock. The solution was to cut a gate in the fence lining the river just above the docks so new and trailered boats could be handed down to the docks from the sidewalk. Obviously such a mistake would be a bit embarrassing to a school nicknamed the Engineers. Is this true? (The architect went to Harvard, I'm guessing?)

Foot of the Charles Results

On Saturday the New England schools took to the Charles for one last race in 2006 - The Foot of the Charles. In the varsity four competition (at least I assume that's what it is, it's not named in the results) MIT was the top lightweight boat, finishing 14th out of 40. Radcliffe was next, 9 seconds back, followed by UMass, Radcliffe B and C, and MIT B. In the novice eight race the mighty Radcliffe freshmen were third, 20 seconds off of the Radcliffe heavies and 5 seconds off of the Dartmouth heavies. The MIT freshmen were 17th out of 30, almost two minutes behind Radcliffe. MIT was followed by the Radcliffe and MIT B boats. In the varsity eight race MIT lights were 3rd out of eight boats while the Radcliffe lights were 8th. I'm not entirely clear on what this race is since it's small and the results are often odd. I'm sure a reader can tell me but I assume these are 2 or 3Vs? [Update: See comments.]

MIT has to be pleased with their fours performance. They beat their own heavyweights as well as a few other heavyweight A boats and a whole lot of heavyweight B and C boats, not to mention Radcliffe's lights. This is also a nice turnaround from last year when MIT was almost a minute behind Radcliffe. The Radcliffe freshman eight continues to churn up the waters, here apparently facing stacked heavyweight boats. This boat appears to be very, very fast and unless it's broken up to bring some rowers into varsity boats, it should be exciting to watch in the spring. It seems untouchable at this point and it would likely go through undefeated, much as Princeton did last season. One of the effects of the Radcliffe freshmen has been to overshadow the MIT freshmen who are having a good fall in their own right. In the middle of the heavyweight pack on Saturday, they beat several heavyweight A boats, including their own.

MIT Gets Some Recognition

The Tech at MIT published a nice story about the lightweights' results at the Head of the Charles. Erqi Liu echos my own sentiments when she says,

Beating Georgetown, and being so close to Radcliffe, proves that MIT crews can be competitive in the toughest league in the country. After this, and IRAs, people are taking MIT lightweights more seriously.

Much as UCF was last year, MIT may be the breakout crew of the 2007 spring season.

Coaching Changes at MIT

MIT novice lightweight coach Aaron Benson has moved over to the heavyweight team and will coach the heavy novices this year. Although coaching "differently weighted" women now, Coach Benson has been an enthusiastic supporter of lightweight women's rowing and I have no doubt he will continue to be a supporter in his new role.

Coach Benson has been replaced by Philadelphia and Vesper Boat Club fixture Claire Kostrzewski. Coach K (that's inevitable, isn't it?) rowed at Georgetown and has been competing on the elite lightweight circuit. She'll be a great addition to the MIT staff.

Furthermore...

If lightweights were heavyweights, and prone to self-congratulatory awards, the crew of the year would likely be Georgetown. To some, a move from fourth to second doesn't seem like that big of a deal. We all know better. Most obviously, it's a move from no medal to a silver medal. Even bigger though, is the fact that Georgetown had become a reliable fourth. Plugging along never quite able to see the big three ahead of them and always worried about Stanford to the rear. No longer. Despite the fact that the light women were the most successful program at Georgetown, they never seemed to get the respect they deserved in their own boathouse. They can't be ignored any more, can they? With a silver medal around their necks and a coach of their own, they've shown what some focus can do.

Another crew that I think should be mentioned is MIT. Earlier in the year MIT lost to Dayton by 20 seconds and URI by 17, both of whom MIT beat in the petite final. With some injuries in the boat, MIT didn't enter an eight at Sprints, so it was something of an unknown coming into IRAs and it showed that it had clearly done some work over the last three weeks.

Cliffies and Princetonians no doubt lament the days when they could win five national championships in a row and then simply trade it off with the other. Those days are gone. This is a new, much more competitive world. Although the Wisconsin dynasty is threatening a similar reign, the deck below is getting shuffled. Wisco's three championships now, are more impressive than Radcliffe's and Princeton's runs in past years because of this new competitiveness. As more dedicated lightweight crews come into existence, the in-season racing gets tighter and more frequent creating momentum for even more programs to enter the fray. Although some would have us think otherwise, this season has once again shown that women's lightweight rowing is growing stronger every year. [See comments for a nice view of the regatta.]




As the inevitable criticisms begin to roll in of my last post, I need to address the lane kerfuffle one last time. I thought long and hard about mentioning it in my post because I knew I would open myself up to accusations of Princeton partisanship and an intent to belittle the achievements of the medalists. I had planned not to mention it, particularly when I saw the row2k report - until I looked at the results. Clearly, there was a problem. In no way does this mean that I think Princeton would have won or medaled in a different lane. I have no idea. The rest of the field may have gone even faster with a faster boat on their tail. There are no asterisks in rowing. There are, however, regatta committees who must make decisions at next year's regatta. At the risk of sounding like Stanford, if no one points out the obvious, they'll think they can continue to fool all of the people all of the time. This went beyond the women's event and into the heavyweight and lightweight men's as well, affecting Yale and Navy. I regret that a full explanation took up so much space, but if I was going to mention it I had to justify it. Remember, it could be you in lane one next time. There, I'm done with it. Shoot the messenger if you will. I've been waiting for it and I've put on my armor in anticipation. Read the comments for opposing views and be civil when you post. Passion is good!

By the way, I may mention it again. Next year. Someone has to stir the pot, right?

Clarification on MIT, URI, and Radcliffe

I've been informed that the Radcliffe novice eight that raced MIT and URI last weekend was a boat of only novices, with no recruits. The Radcliffe V8 had some injuries (not the novices) which undoubtedly slowed them down in their race with the heavyweights.

I think the most interesting point here is that Radcliffe has maintained at least one full boat of true novices through the winter and into the spring season. This is no small feat given the intensity at which a crew like Radcliffe trains. I would think that typically they start off in the fall with quite a few walk-ons, but would normally be lucky to keep 3 to 5 by the spring. This is another sign of Radcliffe's growing depth.

More on MIT, URI, and Radcliffe

Turns out that MIT and Radcliffe both had some injuries, and the boats racing in the Lightweight V8 race were a bit of a mixed bag, combining varsity and novice rowers. This makes more sense in light of the results. Here is a great picture of the finish of that race showing just how close it actually was (Thanks to Aaron Benson).

April 15 Races

Radcliffe continues to show their strength as the lightweight V8 raced against two heavyweight V8s from BC and URI. Radcliffe was 10 seconds back from the winner, BC, and 5 seconds behind URI. Radcliffe's frosh raced against the Lightweight V8s from URI and MIT, finishing ahead of URI by 3 seconds and ahead of MIT by 4 seconds. The Radcliffe win here overshadowed what was a barnburner of a race between URI and MIT, as MIT considerably closed the gap with URI, from 17 seconds at Knecht to 1 second yesterday. The Knecht conditions were so odd that results were a bit goofy and in the absence of similar conditions may not be entirely reliable. These results also make me wonder if the Radcliffe frosh boat was the same as the one at Knecht, where they were 12 seconds behind Princeton. Either it's a different boat (or a different row) or Princeton's frosh are fast as the wind. MIT's 2V finished ahead of the UMass 1V, while Radcliffe won the fours race over MIT.

Wisconsin also did the heavyweight thing, finishing 7 seconds behind Michigan's 2V and 17 seconds ahead of Iowa's 2V. Later, the lights finished 16 and 15 seconds back from the Wisco and Michigan heavy 2Vs. In the 2F heavy race Wisconsin's 1F lightweights finished 3 seconds behind Iowa but 10 seconds ahead of Michigan. The varsity and Frosh also put in creditable performances against the heavies in fours.

Buffalo raced a lightweight four against their own heavies and Eastern Michigan, finishing 3 seconds behind the Buffalo heavies and 23 seconds ahead of EMU. A Buffalo novice light four also raced, finishing behind the Buffalo and EMU heavies.

Northwestern beat a Michigan State light four by 22 seconds. I assume this is a Michigan State club team since the MSU varsity operates under the Football Theorem.

Bucknell was in action against Temple, Delaware, and George Mason and although the results don't specify if Bucknell's light eight raced or not, I would imagine it did, probably in the heavyweight 2V. In that race Bucknell beat Delaware by 2 seconds and Temple by 16.

Final SIRA results are yet to come.

Knecht Cup – Upon Further Reflection…

In American rowing, the eights will always take precedence – they are big, fast, and glamorous, all things American. The eights at Knecht brought us some surprises and made for a fun race both to anticipate and to watch. The most interesting race last weekend, however, may have been the V4. The first reason this is so is because of its possible bearing on the eights. Princeton’s “Rule of Four” four’s decisive win in this race is proof that they are as deep as they’ve been saying. Depth is one thing, fast depth is another and Princeton seems to have both. This tells me one of two things – one is that the Tigers may be able to make (or plausibly threaten) some lineup changes which, when coupled with some hard work, could bring them more speed, or secondly, that the Tigers are in a better position to handle the injury or sickness that will inevitably occur over the course of the rest of the season.

The real story among the fours, though, is MIT. MIT was second, and has some open water to make up if they want to catch Princeton, but they beat some really good crews. Maybe most important to the Engineers (do they need a better nickname – Fightin’ Engineers?) is that they were able to beat hometown rival Radcliffe. MIT had a bit of trouble elsewhere with the V8 getting knocked out of the top ten and the frosh suffering equipment breakage, but the four shone. I wonder if MIT focused on that boat or on the eight? Or both? It’s easy to believe that any four rowers from a good eight will automatically make a good four, but that’s not always the case. As boats get smaller, technique, boat feel, and chemistry become more important. Those four rowers yanked out of the eight will beat a lot of fours, but at the top levels, where crews have been racing together for a while, it’s less likely. Make no mistake, the lightweight racing at Knecht was the best racing in the country last weekend. While the rest of the regatta played their reindeer games on the Cooper, the 2006 national champion, whoever that may be, was racing in the lightweight event. There were a couple of crews missing – Stanford, Cal, Bucknell, OSU – but this was the best the country has to offer in lightweight women’s rowing. I wonder if the regatta organizers understand that?

Another four that impressed was Carnegie Mellon, finishing 5th. They only lost to MIT and the perennial powers and beat all the Dad Vail crews entered. Losing to Pitt at the Murphy Cup appears to have lit a fire under their seats and they should be a force in Philadelphia. Speaking of Pitt, what happened there? They beat Lehigh and Villanova by 23 seconds at Murphy, but lost to both in their heat at Knecht. That’s more than a bad day so I think there’s more to the story. [Update: See comments for more on Pitt.]

One last thing; one FITD reader (who also has his own blog, First Light) noted that the women’s lightweight racing was the best of the day, saying his former coach always said women row better technically. I think this is true of lightweight rowing in general. No lightweight crew will win simply by having more meat in the boat. Because all rowers are the same size, technical ability becomes more important than ever. (This also means that lightweight coaches should be some of the best coaches around.) This is simply more evidence to suggest that when you have an assemblage of crews like that at the Knecht Cup, you’ll see the best rowing the country has to offer. And to think that Sprints, Dad Vails, and IRAs are still to come!

A Little Off Topic...

Today is Pi Day (3/14, get it?). What does that have to do with lightweight rowing? Well MIT, those raucous purveyors of merriment, and home to a pretty good lightweight crew, often sends out its acceptance letters for delivery on this date. Just think, today one of your future foes (or teammates) may receive the happiest news of her life. Don't believe the raucous part? Check out their launching cheer. (Does Jerry Mathers play the part of Beaver?)