The biggest tournament of the year is coming up for all three rowing teams.

The women’s rowing team swept all six races against Dartmouth over the weekend at home, putting a successful end to the regular season. Now, the team prepares for the upcoming Eastern Sprints.

In a guest column, former men's heavyweight commodore Chris Frendl discusses the performance of the men's and women's rowing teams at last weekend's Head of the Charles Regatta. 

The women's rowing team took home both the Raritan Cup and the Class of 1989 Plate over the weekend.

The women's rowing team will travel away from the Cayuga Lake Inlet for the first time this season.

The Cornell Rowing Center on Cayuga Lake is scheduled to undergo an $8 million renovation, ending a 12-year endeavor to expand the boathouses and equalize the women and men’s locker room facilities, according to Anita Brenner, associate director of athletics. The renovations will begin sometime this summer and be completed by Spring 2011.

Over the weekend, the men’s and women’s rowing teams closed out the fall portion of their season in commanding fashion –– winning five-of-seven races despite a persistent rain and strong headwinds that plagued Syracuse’s Onondaga Lake.

“The conditions [were] absolutely miserable, but that’s one of the things ... where you can complain about it, and if you complain about it you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage,” said heavyweight rowing head coach Todd Kennett. “Everybody’s going to have to race in it; it’s an outdoor sport, suck it up and deal with it, and go out to win a race. Because if you don’t, you’re not going to win. You have to take what you want to get, and if you don’t push like that, you won’t get it.”

The rowing teams hit the water in full force this weekend, sending 34 boats to the Princeton Chase on Sunday. The Red put up an overall solid performance at the three-mile race on Lake Carnegie in New Jersey –– recording 15 top-10 results, including five finishes of sixth or better.

Both men’s rowing teams were well-represented at the race, yet it was the men’s heavyweight team that had arguably the best showing at the regatta. The heavyweight team sent 10 boats to New Jersey and placed half of them in the top-10, including two in the top-5.

The rowing teams are ready to participate in the Head of the Charles Regatta, the world’s largest two-day rowing event, on Sunday. The Red rowing crews are going to compete in three different categories: the men’s heavyweight team is going to participate in the Championship Eights; the men’s lightweight group will take part in the Lightweight Eights event, while the women’s crew will represent Cornell in the Championship Fours.

When you’re competing for the title of “World Champions,” second place is pretty darn good.

Facing incredible talent and competition, the U.S. lightweight-8 boat glided into a second-place finish yesterday during the grand finals at the World Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland. Aboard the boat representing the U.S. was current Cornell coxswain Kerry Quinn ’10 along with recent Cornell graduates Andrew Diebold ’06 and Matt Kochem ’08. The three were selected for the national team following an intense qualifying and training period this past summer in Princeton, N.J.

The U.S. and Italy were the favored boats coming into the championship race after winning their individual qualifying heats the previous Sunday.