Lights Finish Full Weekend of Racing with Mixed Results

This past weekend the Fightin’ 150s raced Dartmouth and Columbia in two separate duels in two separate locations. The Dartmouth race took place at GMS rowing center in Connecticut late Saturday morning. The Columbia race took place the same afternoon in Overpeck Park in New Jersey.

The morning racing against Dartmouth brought cold temperatures and high winds. The strong tailwinds made for fast but extremely choppy conditions throughout the length of the course. The order of racing was 1V, 2V, Frosh, V4. In the varsity four race the Delaware entry bested both Dartmouth entries after fighting through the rough conditions and recovering after being hit by a massive wake during the course of the race. The Delaware four finished in a time of 6.23.7 putting them 8.6s and 37s ahead of their respective Dartmouth competition. The freshman race pitted both the Delaware 1F and 2F against Dartmouth’s single entry. After a rough start the Delaware 1F was able to gain the lead and push away down the length of the course. The Delaware 2F and Dartmouth boats had an extremely tight race. Ultimately the Delaware 2F bested the Dartmouth entry by 0.4s. The Delaware 1F finished in a time of 5.30.8 with the 2F and Dartmouth  boats 7.6s and 8.0s behind. The 2V race was close throughout with Dartmouth besting Delaware in the first 750m before Delaware was able to pull even and then move away in the second half of the race. Delaware finished at 5.31.1 with Dartmouth exactly 4.0s behind. The varsity race was a 3 boat event with an added entry from Fordham. Dartmouth was able to jump out at the start.  In what became a hard fought battle, Delaware was able to reel Dartmouth in for a close finish. Dartmouth finished in a time of 5.17.5 with Delaware 3.0s behind and Fordham 17.5s back.

After the drive down to New Jersey the 150s were rigged and rowing within the hour. Conditions were completely different than the morning with temperatures in the high 50s, flat water and low variable winds. The racing order for the afternoon was V4, 3V/Frosh, 2V, 1V. In the first race of the afternoon Delaware’s four took on Columbia’s. The race was restarted after 500m due to encroachment into Delaware’s lane. On the second start the boats got off clean. Columbia’s  boat was able to push away from Delaware the second time down the course and took a 4.0s victory finishing in a time of 7.27.5. The next race of the day put the Delaware freshman boats against Columbia’s 3V. In a clean race Delaware’s 1F took the commanding victory followed by Delaware’s 2F and then Columbia’s 3V. The 1F finished at 6.12.8 with the 2F 17.5s back and Columbia 19.0s back. The 2V race was next off. In this race Columbia was strong off the start taking a commanding lead that they were able to extend down the course. Columbia finished in 6.12.95s with Delaware 16.5s back. In the premier race of the day featuring the varsity crews and a hard fought battle, Delaware was bested by Columbia who finished at 6.07.95 with Delaware 5.6s off the pace.

Through this weekend’s racing the Delaware freshman remain undefeated while the team is still looking for its first complete victory at the varsity level with EARC competition. The lights will spend the next two weeks rowing various light and heavy events in the Knecht Cup and SIRA regattas before returning to EARC competition in a race with Navy and Penn on 4/27.