Heavyweights Battle at Sprints
MAY 16, 2004
On Sunday, May 16, the heavyweights raced for the second time in the history of the program at the Eastern Sprints improving as a team from last year, including a tenth place finish by the novice heavyweight eight who moved up from its 11th place seeding.
The freshmen raced in a heat including Brown, Penn and Wisconsin. Georgetown finished as seeded in 4th place in the race and in doing so qualified for the petite final, the first Georgetown heavyweight boat to do so since joining the men’s Sprints league last year. In the final, the boat had even more success finishing 4th for a 10th place finish overall. The young Hoyas exacted revenge for prior losses to Syracuse from earlier in the season and Wisconsin from earlier in the day.
In the varsity eight event, Georgetown had its sights set on a spot in
the petite or grand final. In the heats, Georgetown was surprised by the
start of host Holy Cross who was racing as Worcester City Champion and
guest to the Sprints. Holy Cross was first out of the blocks and found
itself a boat length up on Georgetown and tied with #3 nationally Princeton
(who would go on to capture the silver later in the day). With a start
not as many had hoped for, Georgetown found itself two seats down to BU
over the first 600-700 meters. BU with its seven foreign-born rowers moved
out and eventually finished third. Georgetown walked through Holy Cross
in the last 1000 meters and pulled closer to Brown, only to finish four
seconds away from a spot in the petite final.
In the third level final, Georgetown faced Holy Cross and Syracuse, who
beat the Hoyas by 17 seconds earlier in the season. Georgetown was looking
for a win to improve on its 14th seeding and avenge the Syracuse loss.
Once again Holy Cross came out on fire and the Hoyas heavies found themselves
trailing early in the race. But once again Georgetown was able to walk
through Holy Cross but were not able to catch Syracuse, finishing a boat
length down to the Orangemen.
In the junior varsity races, Georgetown finished 5th in its heat and followed up with a 14th place finish overall, losing to Penn in the third level final while defeating M.I.T.
The Harvard heavyweights won every race among the traditionally-contested
Sprints events.
