This week was a huge week for racing, seeing some really highly ranked competition facing off with some surprising results. #4 Princeton toppled #1 Harvard to retain the Compton Cup, whilst #3 UW bested #2 Cal in another upset to win their 77th Schoch Cup in arguably collegiate rowing best rivalry. #6 Brown beat #9 Dartmouth to win back the Atalanta Cup. #5 Yale beat #10 Penn and #17 Columbia to retain the Blackwell Cup and #7 Syracuse retained the Goes Trophy against #11 Navy and #14 Cornell.
Compton Cup
Princeton have presumably asserted themselves as the new number one in the country after their second and a half victory over Harvard. The crew which won bronze last year after a period where some had believed that they were underachieving relative to their talent now seems to be going from strength to strength. Last year Greg Hughes crew did a superb job of peaking at the right moments and it will be interesting to see whether they are able to do that again. As to Harvard it will be interesting to see where things go from here. Many may jump to conclusions and say this is the first glimpse of the Harvard of old. It will be hard to know if that is really true until we see Princeton race another top team and get a better sense of their speed. Princeton until now had faced no real competition, stringing together convincing but not dominant wins over double digit seeds. UW showed how scary they are this and Harvard beat them only a few weeks ago. It will certainly be exciting to see these two crew line up opposite each other at sprints.
Schoch Cup
The UW Cal duel is one of the great events in rowing and this year was no different. Every boat, male and female across both programs are fantastic year in year out and always produces fantastic racing. This year UW came away with the win in the Varsity and across the majority of the boats, with the varsity going 5:24 on the way to winning by a length and setting a course record. Cal jumped to a lead of the start, which seemed to be their race plan across the board, but the Huskies imperious base pace lead to them charging through in the 3rd 500. Whilst they did lose to Harvard, and I have bought to heavily into the UW hype in the past, I am not sure if there is anyone who can keep up with the UW varsity or will be able to at IRAs
Atalanta Cup
The Atalanta Cup will return to Providence after a two year stint in Hanover. The day seemed to start off well for Dartmouth, with their superior depth delivering a slew of wins, but the Varsity race saw Brown break through in the 3rd 500 on their way to victory. Brown, as ever, seem to be finding speed as the season progresses and it will be interesting to see how fast the varsity can go come sprints and IRAs. Dartmouth will be looking to bounce back racing Syracuse at home next week in what promises to be a good contest.
Blackwell Cup
In what was really a two horse race between Yale and Penn, Yale retained the Blackwell cup for another year. Whilst their victory never really seemed in doubt during the race, Penn will be pleased with how they have closed the gap on Yale. Having been 27 seconds away two years ago and 13 last year, having narrowed the gap down to only three seconds must be enormously spiriting for Al Monte and his crew. With regard to Yale it will be I retesting to see how Mike Gennaro manages the late season in his first year at coach. Will he have any tricks up his sleeeve to find late speed or have we seen the best already? Only time will tell.
Goes Trophy
Syracuse’s retention of the Goes trophy doesn’t really give us much more of an idea of their speed. They beat Navy by the same margin as Princeton, but by relative margin (which is never very accurate but gives a vague idea) are about three lengths off them. We will get a better idea of where they are after their race against Dartmouth this weekend. Syracuse are a crew with moxie, and have shown over the last two years that they can surprise anyone on their day, and so don’t be shocked if they make some real noise at sprints or IRAs if they produce a strong result at Lake Morey.
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