Lightweight Preview for EARC Sprints
MAY 10, 2004
On Sunday, May 16, Georgetown’s Lightweight Men will contest their
league championship, the EARC Eastern Sprints. The crews will leave Washington,
DC the morning of Friday the 14th, arriving in Massachusetts that evening.
Saturday will see the crews taking practice rows on the course and weighing
in, followed by the team banquet, where next year’s captain will
be elected. The racing, however, will be done entirely in one day, Sunday
the 16th. Each event, except for the 2F, is subscribed to by 12 crews
and will have 2 heats of 6 crews each in the morning. The top 3 crews
from each heat will advance to the Grand Finals, with the bottom 3 crews
relegated to the Petite Final. The 1F is seeded 9th of 12 crews, while
the 2F is ranked 4th of 5 crews, giving it a finals-only race.
The Second Varsity has been building momentum on a solid string of practices
and is hoping to turn around their season by making an appearance in the
grand final. To do so, they will likely have to beat either Navy or Yale
to make it out of their heat, as they are seeded 8th out of 12 crews.
A tall task to be sure, but one that the Hoyas are approaching optimistically.
Meanwhile, the Varsity enters Sprints with a 5th place seed. Due to the way the heats are drawn up, Georgetown will likely find themselves racing in lane 2 or 5, with Navy and Yale occupying lanes 3 & 4. Navy carries an undefeated spring season into Sprints this year, having recorded victories over Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, in addition to besting Georgetown. While a string of strong races is always a confidence booster, it also gives a lot of teams extra motivation to knock you off your pedestal. While Navy enters as the undisputed #1 seed, their victory is hardly assured. The Hoyas have not had a head-to-head meeting with Yale this year, and so are only able to guess at their speed from their results against other teams. The other heat is expected to be led by Harvard (#2 seed, having lost only to Navy, by 1.1 seconds) and Cornell, with Princeton and Dartmouth vying for the third Grand Final bid. All in all, close racing is expected across the board, which makes great viewing for the spectators but tough times for the rowers. The parity and speed of the Sprints Lightweights promises no less.
