Men's Crews Row At Eastern Sprints
May 9, 1999 | Men's Rowing
The men's varsity heavyweight crew rowed slightly better than expected, while the second varsity and first freshmen fell a little short as the Terriers competed in the 54th annual Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints on Sunday (May 9th) on Worcester's Lake Quinsigamond.
The heavyweight crew went into the event seeded 13th in the 15-boat event and finished 12th. The second varsity was seeded 9th in its 14-boat race and finished 11th, while the first freshmen, which was seeded 5th among the 15 boats entered, wound up a disappointing 8th.
In the Sunday morning qualifying races, the first varsity was entered against Princeton, Wisconsin, Yale, and Navy.
Head coach Rodney Pratt knew it would be a difficult heat for his Terrier boat, considering the Terriers had lost to both Wisconsin and Yale just the week before the Sprints, while Princeton was the top seed in the field of 15.
The Terriers got off to an excellent start and challenged for the lead through the first 200 meters of the race.
From all reports on the course, there was a very difficult head wind at 300 meters, and the Terriers, with one of the lightest boats in the varsity heavyweight racing, was challenged by the wind.
With just 500 meters left in the 2000-meter course, B.U. was fifth in the heat and appeared headed for the 3rd level finals. It would have marked the first time in the nine-year tenure of Pratt that a Terrier varsity boat would not have at least made the Petite Finals.
Meeting the challenge head on, the Terriers finished on a strong note, and beat Navy by three-tenths of a second, as B.U. qualified for the Petites.
There, they met Yale, Rutgers, Syracuse, Dartmouth, and Columbia.
B.U. had raced against all five of these crews earlier this year and was 1-4 against them with the only win coming against Columbia.
In the Sprints, though, the Terriers lost to the five boats, and finished 6th in the Petites in a time of 6:02.65, less than a second behind Columbia, which was timed in 6:01.92, and about three seconds behind fourth-place Dartmouth (5:59.11).
As an aside, of the four other boats entered in the Terriers' morning heat, Princeton won the Grand Finals, as it was the number one heavyweight varsity at the Sprints. Wisconsin finished 4th in the Finals. Yale won the Petite Finals, and Navy was the 3rd level final winner.
In the Second Varsity, the Terriers finished fourth in their morning heat behind winner Pennsylvania, runnerup Wisconsin, and third-place Northeastern. Then, in the afternoon's Petite Finals, B.U. was 5th in 6:03.64, less than a second behind Northeastern (6:02.76).
In the First Freshmen, B.U. was a little more than a second slower than Cornell in the morning heat, as the Terriers narrowly missed qualifying for the Grand Finals in their event. Only two boats from each heat qualified for the Finals, and Brown, which won the heat, joined Cornell in the Grands, while the Terriers had to settle for the Petites.
There, the Terriers finished second behind Syracuse, 6:04.6 to 6:06.
B.U.'s best finish in the day's racing was in the Second Freshmen Heavyweight Eights. Only six boats were entered. Thus, there were no qualifying heats, as all six rowed in the Grand Finals. B.U., which was timed in 6:47.90 finished behind Harvard (6:38.10) and Northeastern (6:40.10).
