Heavyweights Battle Yale
for 1st Tony Johnson Cup
MAY 1, 2004
Coming off of a terrible outing the previous weekend in Syracuse, the Heavyweights looked to rebound with a tough weekend of racing that included Yale in Princeton, NJ and then The George Washington University Sunday morning on the Potomac. The two events marked Georgetown's only two cup races for the season including its newest, The Tony Johnson Cup awarded to the winner of the race between the Yale and Georgetown varsity eight.
The Tony Johnson Cup was created and given by Georgetown's Heavyweight Men's Class of 2003 to honor Coach Johnson's contributions to the rich rowing histories at both Georgetown and Yale, to signify the importance of last year being the first year that the men's heavyweights raced at the Eastern Sprints, and the honor for Georgetown to be racing a crew in Yale that had contributed so much to the history of collegiate rowing in the United States.
In the men's varsity eight event, Georgetown put out what has been to date its best effort against the 10th-ranked Yale Bulldogs by 2.5 seconds, or 3/4 of a length. The lineup of coxswain Dennis O'Donnell, stroke Matt Hallisey, Joe Krajewski, Rob McLane, Andrew Brown, David Rycyna, Tony Boyd, Eric Hilmo, and Tim Lepczyk had a quick start off the line but was unable to match Yale's opening speed as Yale walked out to a 3/4 of a length lead in the opening high strokes. With intensity not yet seen this year, the Hoyas battled back taking seats on Yale. The Elis responded by taking a few seats back. As the race progressed, Yale could not muster enough power to walk away from a gritty Georgetown boat. Then the Hoyas took an early charge, calling the rate up with 750 to go and taking a few seats on Yale once again. This margin held through the course of the race including the sprint during the final 200 meters with Yale beating the Hoyas to the line in a time of 5:51.7 to Georgetown's 5:54.2.
The Yale eight has defeated several good crews this spring including Penn and Dartmouth. They also raced well in a 3 second loss to powerhouse California earlier this season.
In the other events of the day, Yale defeated Georgetown's 2nd varsity
eight. In the first freshman race, the #4 EARC ranked Elis defeated the
#11 Hoyas by only 3.2 seconds. Yale also won the 2nd frosh race by 3.5
seconds.
