Saturday, May 1 was an extremely successful day for the lightweight crew team, as Cornell swept every event against Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H. With these victories, Cornell retains both the Baggaley Bowl for the first Varsity eight and the Miller Cup for the first Freshman eight. 

Despite the fairly choppy water conditions observed on Friday afternoon, the Connecticut River was remarkably calm and flat on Saturday morning, with a tail current. The conditions provided an excellent venue for all four lightweight eight races.  

In the first Freshman eight race, Cornell finished solidly with a 6.7 second margin separating the crew from Dartmouth. The second crew produced an equally powerful performance, in which Cornell blitzed the Green by nearly 10 seconds.  

The Varsity events were far closer, with Cornell’s JV eight finishing ahead of Dartmouth by 3.6 seconds, with only a few seats open at the race’s conclusion. The Varsity eight was easily the most heated event of the day. Both crews shifted down from their high strokes to a tight margin, with Dartmouth claiming a one-seat advantage off the start. But by the halfway mark, the Red trailed Dartmouth by nearly a boat length. Senior coxswain Kerry Quinn called on his crew to execute a strong press in the third 500 meters of the race, and by the 1500m mark Cornell had regained control, leading Dartmouth by a seat. The Red pushed through to edge out Dartmouth by .6 seconds –– just three feet –– over the 2000m race course, producing one of the closest races between the two schools in many years.    

The Baggaley Bowl marked the end of the 2010 regular season for the lightweights. It has been a spring campaign marked by some excellent performances and some challenging losses. This most recent victory has created what head coach Chris Kerber calls a desired “upward trend,” which Cornell hopes to keep building throughout the season. 

“We’ve put in a lot of work and are starting to see the benefits,” said junior Kyle Traub. 

Senior Will Miner agreed, noting, however, that “the dual-racing season has not been without its difficulties; we’ve had to be adaptive, stepping up our speed every week.”  

Indeed, Cornell’s relative rankings among the EARC schools have changed nearly every weekend.  

The results from Sunday’s races should provide an excellent foundation for the Eastern Sprints Championship in Worchester, Mass., on May 16. 

“We’re right where we want to be going into the big races,” Traub said.  

Reminiscent of past seasons, the Sprints is gearing up to be extremely competitive this year. Relative speeds of the EARC crews appear to be very close when considering the results of the collective dual races that Cornell has or has not competed in.  

The Lightweight Eight final two weeks from now promises to be as competitive as ever, with the possibility of anything from a wire-to-wire photo finish to a complete barn-burner where the last 100 meters may determine the entire season.  

“As a team, we need to keep being adaptive, improving with every practice. We will have to row our race at Sprints,” said junior Austin Ditz. 

“We are absolutely ready to go wire-to-wire if that is the case. In this league, races are sometimes decided in the last stroke,” said sophomore Pat Moran.