The Dartmouth crew team has had a busy couple of weekends, first representing Dartmouth well at the CRASH B's in Boston two weeks ago, then setting a number of indoor rowing records last weekend here in Hanover on the erg machine.
Two weeks ago at the CRASH B's, five Dartmouth team members headed down to Boston to represent themselves as individuals at the competition. Ty Garland '02, Brendan Antiochos '01, John Pearson '02 and Ariel Diaz '02 rowed well in the preliminary heats but did not qualify for the finals. Captain Ben Cotting '01 was truly impressive, however, qualifying for the finals.
In the sixth wave of the lightweight heat Cotting rowed a 6:21, which was the fastest collegiate time and the ninth fastest overall time. In the process, the senior qualified for the international final, meaning he would race against top competition from around the world but not against other collegiate finalists.
In the international final, Cotting set a personal best record with an incredible time of 6:14.8 and placed fourth, well above his other two collegiate competitors from Yale and Delaware.
"Technically, I did really well, but I was disappointed with my own performance as I wish I could have won," Cotting said in regards to the results of his race.
On Friday, March 2, all three Dartmouth varsity crew teams set out to break three indoor rowing world records in the 100K distance on the erg machine. The Large Team Women posted a time of 5:30:01.0, the Large Team Mixed 4:58:26.2, and the Large Team Men 4:22:39.4. The previous records were held by small teams; so the Dartmouth teams did not only want to defeat the small team records but hoped to set new large team marks as well. They succeeded.
"This event was a huge success, a great effort of teamwork, and a pumped up way to head into our spring training in another week," head crew coach Scott Armstrong said.
All three ergs were set up in the gym, with the women starting first, followed by the mixed team, and then the men's team. The idea was for all three to finish around the same time, but because all performed better than expected, it did not work out that way. The women were aiming for under a 1:45 average split, and were in fact well under that mark at an impressive 1:39.0.
The mixed team performed well too; 37 men and women were cycled through as they completed the 100K in 4:58:26.2, with an average split of 1:29.5.
The men's team, not to be outdone, was equally impressive, breaking a record set by an elite group of British oarsmen that included five Olympic Gold Medallists. Although the team tired towards the end, they held on to break the old time of 4:23:00 by just over 20 seconds. A total of 28 men from the heavyweight and lightweight team contributed to the record, averaging a 1:18.8 split.
