Another good week of collegiate racing as duel season begins to wind down in anticipation of sprints in the east and conference championships in the west. #1 Princeton beat a game #6 Brown for the Content Cup. #11 Navy beat #18 Columbia for the Stevenson cup. #4 Cal beat #12 Stanford easily at the big row, and Penn emerged the overall victors in series of races that took place in Ithaca.
Content Cup
Princeton who are the consensus best crew nationwide take another impressive scalp. With a win in the top three boats, they will look to make a serious charge at the Ten Eyck points trophy at the IRAs as well as the national title. This was also the first season ever that both Princeton’s first and second varsity went unbeaten in duel season. That being said, Brown were able to maintain contact the whole race. Combining their early season success with Paul Cooke’s history of finding late season speed leaves me to believe Brown are likely medalists at sprints and I wouldn’t count them out at the IRAs either.
Cal/Stanford Duel
In a less competitive race Cal shone against Stanford. Whilst we know that Cal will obviously be and are fast, they have been affected by the Olympic year more than any other program, and their results against Syracuse and Washington question whether they have to top end speed this year to emulate their success under Coach Fransden so far. Stanford, who made a late season charge last year, have also been suffering for losing Olympic bound Pete Chattain. Stanford future does however look bright, as they continue to rebuild from having been cut and have a star studded list of incoming freshman. It will be exciting to see what their future holds.
Stevenson Cup
Navy, who are experiencing a revival, bested Columbia by just over a length. The famously deep Naval academy program has struggled in recent years to find top end speed, but this year seem to be looking to buck the trend and break into the top ten nationally. Columbia, who at the beginning of the season had flashed some signs of a great improvement in speed under new celebrated head coach Tom Teerhar, seem to be struggling to build off it. Teerhar, who had an illustrious career coaching the US women’s team, should not be underestimated however, and it will be interesting to see how this team appears in the coming weeks.
Ithaca Racing series
Penn emerged the overall victors in this matrix, followed by Cornell, OSU and then finally Holy Cross, although Cornell did not directly race OSU. Penn round off a duel season that has been filled with very impressively tight losses with a big win, which will be immensely satisfying to both Al Monte and his athletes. Nobody is really sure what they will do in the post season, but no one will want to miss it. Cornell had a strong final performance at IRAs last year, and will be hoping to uncover speed in a similar manner once again as their current seeding has them just outside the b final. OSU will value this racing experience going into their conference championships, where they will be fighting for fourth after Cal UW and Stanford. Holy Cross will be preparing to race on home water at sprints, and will be seeking an extra edge at the racing with their knowledge of Lake Quinsigamond.
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