5/10/2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. ?  In one short week, Georgetown?s Lightweight Men will contest their league championship, the EARC Eastern Sprints.  The crews will leave Washington, D.C. the morning of Friday, May 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 on Sunday, May 16.  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 ninth of 12 crews, while the 2F is ranked fourth of five 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 eighth 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 fifth 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 so, 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.