By Jewel Della Valle
The men’s crew team took home its first win of the season after defeating Rutgers in the Congram Cup April 28, but remains at 1-3 for the year. The Huskies fell to Harvard, the nation’s top-ranked crew, in the Smith Cup on the Charles River Saturday and to Brown in the Dreissigacker Cup April 21.
The women’s crew team took on Radcliffe, Boston University, Boston College and MIT in the first-ever women’s Beanpot of rowing and came in second April 28.
The men’s varsity fell behind at the start of the race Saturday and never led the contest, finishing behind the Crimson by 15.1 seconds at 6:17.3. The Harvard second varsity also beat the Huskies by a margin of 11 seconds, though the NU freshman boat stayed competitive, losing by just 1.1 seconds with a time of 6:09.3.
The varsity four and freshman four also came close to a win, losing by 4.4 seconds and 4.6 seconds, respectively. This was the 10th consecutive win of the Smith Cup for the Crimson, who own the season series at 24-3.
The Huskies continued their dominance in the Congram Cup, taking their seventh consecutive trophy and beating Rutgers by 9.1 seconds, the largest margin in five years. The second varsity-A and second varsity-B teams and the freshman boat also beat the Scarlet Knights on Carnegie Lake.
In the women’s Beanpot race, the Huskies got off to a strong start and stayed close behind the Radcliffe boat until the middle of the race. Radcliffe finally pulled away in the last 500 meters to take first by a gap of 9.6 seconds at 6:35.7. The Huskies took second place, overcoming BU by 10.2 seconds and beating the Terriers for the first time since 1999. BC came in fourth and MIT finished last.
“We had a good start and were pretty much on pace for the first 500 meters and I think Radcliffe really did a nice job of asserting themselves in the middle of the race and we just didn’t go with them,” said head coach Joe Wilhelm. “We were able to keep pulling away from BU and Boston College and MIT but Radcliffe just found that other gear and shifted to [it] and we just didn’t match.”
Wilhelm said his goal going into the Eastern Sprints, a national rowing championship, will be to strengthen their middle thousand to compete with those schools.
Radcliffe swept the competition, taking first in the second varsity, varsity four and novice races. Northeastern placed second in each race, with BU third, BC fourth and MIT last, except for the second varsity race, which MIT did not compete in.
Both crews are now gearing up for the Eastern Sprints. The Sprints will be May 13, with the men’s crew visiting Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester and the women’s crew traveling to Cooper River in Camden, N.J.
