Men's Crew Concludes Afternoon Action at Eastern Sprints
May 23, 2006 | Men's Rowing
WORCESTER, Mass. – The Boston University men’s crew team capped off EARC “Eastern” Sprints action on Sunday afternoon by finishing at or above its seeding in all but the varsity race. After the third varsity fours garnered the silver medal in the early morning Grand Final, the second freshman boat grabbed sixth place in the Grand Final, while the first freshman eights finished third, the second varsity came up victorious and the varsity placed sixth in their respective Petite Finals.
"Overall, we had mixed results," said BU Head Coach Rodney Pratt. "The JV did really well winning the Petite, but the varsity just couldn't come up with it. The race was really tight at the beginning, but we just didn't stay on the pace - we've got some things to work on in the next two weeks before the IRAs."
Starting off the afternoon with the rain holding out, but the winds increasing was the second freshman Grand Final, in which the Terriers, who went into the race with the seven seed, placed sixth with a time of 6:54.79, behind Northeastern (6:22.57), Wisconsin (6:28.63), Harvard (6:35.98), Yale (6:43.30) and Navy (6:46.25).
As the conditions worsened and the rain was coupled with a strong crossing headwind, the first freshman Petite Final was next for the ninth-seeded Terriers. The BU boat finished third to capture ninth overall, clocking in at 6:35.80, behind Brown (6:23.88) and Cornell (6:32.11), but ahead of Georgetown (6:37.42), Rutgers (6:42.14) and Navy (6:46.44).
With the sun back out, but a steady headwind, the second varsity eights were next to row in their Petite Final. Again the Terriers finished where their seeding projected, crossing the 2,000-meter finish line over three seconds faster than any other boat in the race to win the Petite and place seventh overall. BU’s time was 6:38.41, ahead of Cornell (6:41.61), Syracuse (6:42.71), Navy (6:47.92), Dartmouth (7:01.24) and Rutgers (7:06.14).
Finally, as per usual, the varsity eights were the last to go in the day’s racing and were just able to squeeze the Petite Final in before people were instructed to take cover due to an incoming storm front. Unfortunately for BU, just a year after capturing its best-ever placing in the varsity eight race (fourth), the Terriers came up sixth in the Petites to finish 12th-overall. Syracuse was first in 6:20.68, Cornell second in 6:22.15, Navy third in 6:23.55, Georgetown fourth in 6:24.62, Penn fifth in 6:25.30 and BU sixth in 6:32.60.
The race started off tight, with less than a seat separating the six crews in the first 500 meters. BU hung with the pack until the second half, when the rest of the field gained about a length and the Terriers could not recover. The boat featured a different line-up than any that had been used previously, as stroke Jozef Klaassen was out with an illness.
The Rowe Cup standings, which goes to the heavyweight crew with the best performances in the first and second varsity eights and first freshman eight races, have yet to be decided because the varsity eight Grand Final is on a rain delay.
The Terriers will close out the season at the IRA Regatta in Camden, N.J., on June 1-3.
