From Camden, N.J., to Washington, D.C., Georgetown’s men’s and women’s crew teams rowed to strong showings in the early stages of their 2005 season.
On Saturday the team competed in the George Washington University Invitational Crew Classic on the Potomac River in D.C., where the Hoyas finished fourth.
The women’s varsity eight highlighted the tournament, finishing in second place with a time of 6:27.70. They trailed GW by four ticks but outlasted third-place Villanova by one tenth of a second.
“GW and Georgetown have a lot of parallels as to where we are with our programs . so they are a rival,” Head Coach Tony Johnson said. “In that sense, it’s disappointing to lose to them. However, the women’s crews raced better than they had.”
The Georgetown women had previously faced GW on April 2 and lost convincingly in each of three races.
The men’s varsity eight, meanwhile, left Saturday’s regatta with a third-place finish and a 2,000-meter time of 5:40.10. Gracing the top two spots were Navy and Virginia, who bested Georgetown by 11 and five seconds, respectively.
Johnson attributed many results to “some minor changes that can have a major impact on the race.” Rowing is a fluky sport, and the unexpected variables were visible on Saturday – ranging from inexplicably slow starts to “catching a crab,” which saw a freshman mishandle his oar and throw himself out of the boat in the early stages of a race.
The results of Georgetown’s season opener on March 19, meanwhile, are unlikely to be chalked up to chance. For the second year in a row, the Hoyas sat atop the combined scores of the Jesuit Invitational Regatta and brought a guest – the Cannonball Trophy – on the return trip from Camden.
The day’s competition included a two-length victory over Holy Cross for the men’s varsity eight, and the women’s varsity eight finished ten seconds behind Boston College. The lightweight eights reversed their counterparts’ outcome with a 0.6-second loss to the BC men and a 13-second victory over the St. Joseph’s women.
The teams were treated to spring-like weather, calm racing conditions and a throng of cheering parents and alumni who came out to support Georgetown’s squads. “That was a very good start for us,” Johnson said.
Yet the lightweight loss to Boston College was an unexpected upset – “a real slap in the face,” Johnson said. “BC is a good crew, but we did not expect to lose that race. Hopefully, we’ll see that as just a wake-up call, and go on from there.”
The teams went on from there to compete in separate regattas. The lightweight men, for one, avenged an April 9 sweep by Princeton with a victory over Harvard the day after.
The Hoyas now turn their focus toward the challenges of the season ahead, which are to be found less in Holy Cross and Boston College and more in Navy and Princeton.
Johnson said that he would like to see the varsity teams improve over the season. “We’ve all got the capability of doing that, so whether that means placing higher than they did last year or beating people who we lost to in the beginning, that’s what we’re looking forward to,” he said.
Considering that the lightweight men placed second at last year’s national championship, Georgetown crew has a lofty goal in place.
The men’s crew team will face the Navy lightweights on Saturday and the Rutgers heavyweights on Sunday. The women’s team will head back to Camden, N.J. this weekend for the two-day Knecht Cup Regatta, where they will compete against a large field of heavyweight and lightweight crews from the Northeast.
