Knecht Cup, Heavy Men at Rutgers, Light Men against Navy at Home
April 18, 2005
This weekend once again saw all of the Georgetown squads in action, with the openweight and lightweight women facing stiff competition at the Knecht Cup in Camden, NJ, the heavyweight men battling Rutgers on Sunday on the Raritan River, and the lightweight men racing against Navy at home on the Potomac River.
Racing at the Knecht cup was conducted under windy conditions all weekend, especially during the heats on Saturday. These strong headwinds may have negatively impacted several of the openweight women’s crews and forced them into lower level finals, as many of their crews finished with times in the Petite Finals that would have put them in the medals had they been racing in the Grand Finals. The lightweight women put in an excellent piece in their heat; however, avenging a loss the previous weekend to Stanford University and crossing the line close behind Wisconsin University. The final on Sunday, however, saw them struggle to regain their pace after a slower start and finish in fifth.
The heavyweight men’s racing on Sunday was highlighted by a strong performance by the first freshman crew, which came out ahead of Rutgers by 2.1 seconds, showing that they have already mentally bounced back from their Petite Final win at last week’s GW Invite.
Saturday was a critical race for the men’s lightweight crew, as they faced defending national champions Navy. Navy’s first varsity boat has been undefeated in 2000m racing since the beginning of 2004, and is so far the undisputed lightweight #1 this year. Georgetown, even with a fresh win against Harvard under its belt, was unable to match the Midshipmen’s finishing speed, crossing the line 5 seconds back. This is especially frustrating for the Hoyas as they rowed within a closed length for much of the race, only to be outpowered in the closing stretch. The JV and freshman crews both felt improvement in their races, even against some of the strongest crews in the league. Navy is showing incredible depth this year, and will match up against Harvard next weekend, as the Hoyas rematch against Princeton in Philadelphia.