Winning all nine of the races it competed in, the men’s heavyweight crew team swept the 24th annual George Washington Invitational Regatta over the weekend.

 “The real reason we do the race [against George Washington, Gonzaga and Georgetown] is we have three opportunities to go to the line,” said head coach Todd Kennett ’91. “All three crews in the past have the potential to be dangerous. It gave us the opportunity to perform well and it wasn’t asking for a miracle to win. I think the guys did really well.” 

Rowing against its host Friday afternoon, Cornell beat George Washington by at least a four second margin in each race. The Varsity 8 boat pulled ahead by 16 seconds — a comfortable lead close to the margin by which Harvard beat the senior squad the weekend before.

 “I’d say the most important thing of last weekend was that the first race was cancelled and [the race against Harvard] was [marked by] bad weather conditions, so last weekend was important because we got three races in on one weekend,” said senior Commodore Colin Smith. “We got a lot of experience going over our race plans. In your mind you know what you’re doing and how to execute — getting comfortable with all the rates and speeds.” 

The Frosh boat beat the Colonials by an impressive margin as well — besting them by 12 seconds. 

“I feel good [about the outcome of the regatta],” said freshman Justin Stamp. “We gained a lot of confidence coming off the weekend — especially in the freshman boat it’s applying your power on the water.”

 Stamp is a walk-on to the freshman squad — posting the best 2K time on the erg machines, even though this is his first semester with the sport. 

“This is one of the most intense sports I’ve ever done,” Stamp commented. “All of the training that we do for six minutes is a lot of work, but it’s really fun and the coaches make all the difference.”

  Other members on the team are new to their respective boats as well — including junior Alex Karwoski to the first varsity boat.

“[Being in the Varsity 8 boat] feels good,” Karwoski said. “Everyone wants to be in the top boat, but you have to consistently perform every day. Moving from JV to varsity, you are expected to be the fastest boat on the water in the inlet. You have to be mentally focused with everyone in the boat. It’s more about collective efforts. Going in without the six seniors who had the 3rd place finish in the country, we need to focus more on who we are going to race with this year.”

 This coming weekend, the heavyweights will face rivals Navy and Syracuse at home. Navy also competed at the same invitational as Cornell last weekend, but did not race against the Red. Posting similar results and winning by close margins, the weekend’s race should be an intense event where anything is possible.

 “I see a real blood bath,” Kennett said. “This is going to be a very difficult race. Navy does exceedingly well. [Our] times matched up really tight and margins came out very tight, so it looked really close. Also, to add to fire to the race — Syracuse is the 3rd boat in the race and Syracuse matches up really well. It is going to be a Battle Royale — it’s going to be a really great race.”

 Also rowing this weekend is the men’s lightweight crew team, who has yet to have an official first race of its season due to cancellations. The Red — full of energy and excitement for its first race — looks to beat opponents Princeton University and Saint Joseph's on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. 

“For the most part everyone is excited,” said senior captain Kyle Traub. “We put in a lot of work all winter long and the first part of the spring so far. It’s always a close race between us and Princeton.”

“We’re pretty excited,” echoed junior coxswain Mike Szymoniak. “It will be fun to race at home with lots of parents and alumni. It will be we exciting to race in front of them.” 

Having only been able to practice for the past few weeks, Cornell is starting the season against a tough opponent. According to Szymoniak, Princeton set an event record when they raced Cornell in the fall — winning the race by a decent margin. Princeton will remain comfortably at the top of the league unless another team is able to sail away with a victory.