In one of its tightest races this year, the men’s heavyweight crew team took home three races and the Packard Cup from No. 18 Syracuse University at home on Friday. The first, third and fourth varsity eight boats captured close victories, while the second boat lost by less than half of a second to the Orange.
The first varsity eight race is the most important of the four match-ups, but it is a good sign at this point in the season to have all of the boats performing well, Ryan O’Hanlon ’17 said.
“We don’t know who won or who lost until we get off the water, so finding out that everyone did well was awesome,” O’Hanlon said.
Conditions were calm when the first boat took to the water. The Orange and the Big Green stayed even for most of the race, but Dartmouth managed to just pull ahead at the last second, finishing the 2,000-meter course in 5:36.6, 0.9 seconds ahead of the competition.
“We went really fast off the start, and then they caught up to us,” O’Hanlon said. “It was a good race all the way down the track, and then we finally edged them out by a second.”
O’Hanlon said his boat used the energy of crowd that accumulated on the banks of the Connecticut River.
The second varsity eight was the lone boat to fall to Syracuse and completed the race in 5:37.7, a mere 0.4 seconds after the Orange. Nevin Cunningham ’17 said the team had a slow start, but the boat fought hard to make up for lost distance and managed to overtake the Orange for a portion of the race.
“As soon as we got into our rhythm, we walked them back pretty easily,” Cunningham said. “We were up by a good half a boat length, but they just sprinted through us and just barely edged us.”
The third varsity eight boat cruised to victory, defeating the Orange by 2.9 seconds with a race time of 5:43.8.
The fourth varsity eight raced last, by which time headwinds had picked up, making conditions slightly gusty. Both crews, however, as they completed the course with near identical times — Dartmouth with a 5:49.6 to Syracuse’s 5:50.2.
“We passed them in the last couple of strokes, we didn’t even know if we had won until later on,” captain John Strizich ’14 said.
The team’s performance over the weekend, he said was especially impressive, since they were pitted against Syracuse.
“Syracuse is a good team, they’re well coached and they’ve got a lot of strong guys,” Strizich said. “Winning three out of the four races is pretty unprecedented, at least as long as I’ve been here.”
The Big Green looks to continue this hot streak next weekend at the Eastern Sprints in Worcester, Massachusetts.
