Crews Show Improvement At Eastern Sprints
May 19, 2002 | Men's Rowing
The Terrier men's varsity heavyweight and first freshman crews continued to show their season-long improvement on Sunday (May 19th) at the Eastern Sprints that were held on Worcester's Lake Quinsigamond.
Seeded 11th in its division, the varsity heavyweight did finish 11th overall, while the freshmen, seeded fourth ended up sixth. However, it was not so much where they finished, but who they defeated en route.
In its morning heat, the varsity eight was timed in 5:47.10 as the boat finished third behind Northeastern (5:43.60) and Cornell (5:44.77), while the boat defeated Dartmouth (5:47.12) and Columbia (5:59.78). During the spring regatta season, the Terriers lost to Dartmouth on April 20th by four seconds, 5:55.5 to 5:55.4. Thus, their win over the Big Green in the Sprints' morning heat showed an improvement of over four seconds in a month.
Then, in the afternoon petite finals, the Terriers finished fifth in 5:55.90, while Syracuse finished sixth in 5:57.29. B.U. opened its 2002 spring season at Syracuse and lost to the Orange, 6:13.6 to 6:14.1. Thus, once again, the Terriers showed improvement.
"I was very pleased with how we rowed," said Terrier head coach Rodney Pratt. "I think it shows how far we have come during the season. Now, we have a couple of weeks off before the IRAs, and we have to work on getting even faster."
The first freshmen can also point to improvement in their morning heat when they finished second to third-seeded Brown by less than a second. The Bears were timed in 6:00.3, while the Terriers covered the 2000-meter course in 6:01.01. On April 6th, these two crews rowed against each other in a dual regatta and Brown won by nearly six seconds, 6:12.7 to 6:18.6. Thus, the Terriers had improved by over five seconds in about six weeks.
With their second-place finish in the morning heat, the Terriers advanced to the afternoon's grand finals. There, they rowed in 6:00.28 where they finished sixth behind Harvard (5:51.39), Brown (5:54.98), Yale (5:55.46), Princeton (5:56.47), and Northeastern (5:59.60). On April 13th, the Terriers rowed against Northeastern and lost by nearly seven seconds, 6:41.8 to 6:48.3. So, in five weeks, the Terriers cut six seconds between them and the Huskies.
"A month ago, I never thought we would have been able to row this well especially since we have five rowers in the boat who had never rowed before they got to Boston University," said freshman coach Dave LeFebvre. "We rowed much better than I thought we would. Now, I want us to get 10 seconds faster for the IRAs."
The Terriers also had a second varsity and second freshman boat in the Sprints.
The second varsity finished sixth in the morning heat in 6:08.12 as it trailed Harvard (5:50.68), Brown (5:55.72), Navy (6:04.63), and Syracuse (6:05.95). Then, in the afternoon's third-level final between the Terriers and Columbia, B.U. rowed to a 9.3-second win, 6:11.65 to 6:20.94.
Finally, in the second freshman eight, the Terriers finished sixth in 6:32.2. Harvard won the heat in 6:20.04 followed by Yale (6:24.42), and Northeastern (6:28.76). The heat ended the Terriers' day as they did not advance to the grand finals and there were no petite or third-level finals in the event.
