Delaware Improves at Princeton Chase

Looking to improve from their results at the Head of the Charles and strike back against their Ivy League foes, the Fightin’ Blue Hens travelled to New Jersey to race the Princeton Chase. With four Varsity Lightweight Eights, two Freshmen Lightweight Eights, two Lightweight Fours, and one Heavyweight Eight, the Hens stepped up and put forth a better team result than last year to end the fall head racing season.

With one change from the Charles lineup, the Varsity Lightweight Eight (McCullough, Pereira, Hurley, Kungl, AbuAwad, Marello, Frezza, Beardell, and Snow) blasted down Lake Carnegie with a time of 13:03.1 to place sixth out of twenty-six, a three spot improvement from the 2016 campaign. They finished well clear of Dartmouth and Temple in their endeavor. The University of Pennsylvania, completing the 2.7 mile course in 12:46.6, took gold. The Second Varsity Lightweight Eight completed the race in sixteenth (two spots better than last year), ahead of the Second Varsity from Dartmouth. The Third Varsity, twentieth, and the Fourth Varsity, twenty-fourth, rounded out the Varsity racing with a five and eight spot jump from last year respectively. Next up for the Lightweight eights were a pair of freshmen boats.

Coxed by Maddie Sayer, the “A” crew of AbuAwad, Dildar, Chapman, Campone, Hill, Carney, Hayden and Kelley geared up for their second race of the day. Barreling past both the lightweight and heavyweight entries from Georgetown as well as the heavyweights from George Washington, the freshmen placed ninth out of seventeen, a four spot improvement from 2016. The “B” crew finished fifteenth, ahead of both the heavyweight and lightweight “B” boats from Princeton.

Finishing up the Lightweight showing in Princeton, two Delaware Fours finished seventh and twenty-fourth. The “A” boat, comprised of the stern four of the Varsity Eight, raced the same top crews from the morning and completed the course with a time of 14:37.2, ahead of the crews from Navy and Dartmouth; Princeton took the win on their home course with a time of 14:15.3. Lastly, the heavyweights took on the majority of the Sprints league for the first time ever.

In their inaugural showing at the Chase, the Heavyweight Eight continued to struggle, finishing twenty-eighth, ahead of the University of California-San Diego. Princeton’s Varsity won handily over Dartmouth and Syracuse. Despite the disappointing performance, the crew of Trunley, Rumaker, Ruggiero, Field, Montreuil, Gaydosh, Fraser, Canning, and Filby narrowed their margin on Drexel, Saint Joseph’s, and Virginia from last week at the Charles. Moving forward, the heavyweights will reevaluate their lineup and train to be ready for the final regatta of the season.

The Hens will put the head racing season behind them and gear up for a 2,000m race at the Frostbite Regatta on November 11th where they will race Temple, Drexel, and Columbia.