Women’s Team Captures First Victories of Spring

After last weekend’s success for the Hoya men’s crew team, the women decided it was their turn this week. Both the open weight and the lightweight teams defeated Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Drexel on Saturday, the first wins for the women this spring.

While the women competed in Philadelphia, the heavyweight men traveled to Cornell and lost their race, failing to improve upon their impressive victory over Rutgers last week.

The varsity lightweight men earned another monumental victory over Rutgers yesterday in New Jersey on Lake Mercer, an international course that uses college races as test runs to evaluate its conditions.

The women’s competition was a double-dual, meaning that Georgetown raced MIT in the morning and Drexel in the afternoon in two separate contests.

Against MIT, the varsity open weight women led by six seats off the start. By the 1,000-meter mark the Hoya eight, coxed by senior Nori Lamarzi and stroked by sophomore Jess Maley, had an open water lead, which the team was able to maintain for the remainder of the race. They finished with a strong sprint and won by almost seven seconds.

In the lightweight race against MIT, the Hoyas started off with an open water lead, but the Beaver sprint bought them a few seats and closed the gap. However, the MIT surge was not enough to take the win away from Georgetown.

The results were the same in the afternoon. The open weights handed Drexel another loss and the lightweights, who arranged their line-up to compete as a second varsity open weight boat to accommodate Drexel, won by three boat lengths. This was a huge margin of victory for the makeshift line-up of Hoyas, which included senior captain Kate Johnson. The stroke in that eight was sophomore Molly Plimpton, and the lucky coxswain thrown into the Schuylkill River after the victory was sophomore Caitlin Huntley.

The Georgetown women’s novice crews, which also made the trip to Philadelphia, came home with a sweep of victories as well. The novice open weight race against MIT was a blowout, as the Hoyas led from the start and won by 30 seconds. The lightweight eight with coxswain Alyson Heller and stroke Tori Brown defeated MIT by 32 seconds.

In the afternoon, the weather grew a little colder, but the cold could not stop the Georgetown novice crews from pulling hard for two more victories. Against Drexel, the open weight and lightweight boats raced in the same heat opposite the Dragons’ open weight boat only. The open weight eight for Georgetown, with coxswain Yvonne Montoya and stroke Molly Dolan finished first, 18 seconds ahead of the Hoyas’ lightweight eight which came in 16 seconds over Drexel.

The No. 7 Hoya lightweight men upset No. 6 Rutgers, moving the varsity team one step closer to number one in the nation. The new rankings come out this week, and Georgetown hopes to be second only to Yale, whom they are scheduled to race in three weeks.

“Georgetown lightweight crew has been sick the last few years and we as a team . have put in a lot of effort and each race is a checkup for us,” said senior Jeff Anchukaitis regarding the team’s progress. “So far things are going a lot better. We have a few more checkups this year, and hopefully at nationals we will come home with a good bill of health and lots of shirts and medals.”

The Hoyas were forced to row a 2,000-meter ergometer test on Saturday, because they weighed in on Friday as did Rutgers. Since Rutgers had a race on Saturday, rules stipulated that Georgetown race as well.

The test-race tired the Hoyas rowers, resulting in a flat race on Sunday. The boat had a rough start and a shaky first 500 meters. But Georgetown overcame the early difficulty and grabbed the lead with a strong second 500. They were able to hold on to that narrow margin and come away with what the team later called an “easy win.” Although they didn’t row their best, the men feel that this is just one step closer to the national championship.

Both the Georgetown second varsity boat, which expected to defeat Rutgers, and the novice team fell to the Scarlet Knights.

The Georgetown heavyweight crew fought hard against Cornell this weekend, but they too fell in competition. Cornell has two very strong boats so despite the losses, the Hoyas remain positive about their efforts.

In the varsity race, the Hoyas were never up by more than four seats, as they finished about one length, or three seconds, behind. The second varsity race ended similarly with Georgetown finishing a half a boat length behind Cornell. The Hoyas were facing a very strong eight from Cornell whose boat average for a 2,000-meter piece is 6:13, one second faster than that of the “engine room,” or the middle four, in the Georgetown boat.

The next race for all crews is the George Washington University Invitational on Saturday April 14, on the Potomac River.