May 17, 2008

Washington, D.C. - Georgetown's Men's and Women's Crews will compete in their respective Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges' championships tomorrow, Sunday, May 18. The men will race on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., while the women will compete on Cooper River in Camden, N.J. The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) sponsors the event along with other co-sponsors.

The Men's Eastern Sprints started in 1946 and the Women's Eastern Sprints have been around since 1974. The participants include all of the Ivy League schools as well as others such as Syracuse University, the U.S. Naval Academy, MIT, Boston University, Rutgers, Northeastern, Delaware, and Wisconsin. In the fall of 2006, the University of George Washington and The College of the Holy Cross were given a two year provisional bid to join the league.

Since 1946, the Rowe Cup has been awarded to the college whose heavyweight men's crews score the highest combined total number of points in the varsity, junior varsity, and freshman races. Harvard has won the cup the most number of times (27). Princeton comes in second with seven wins.

Since 1961, the Jope Cup has been awarded to the college whose lightweight men's crews score the highest combined total number of points in the varsity, junior varsity, and freshman races. Harvard has won the cup 19 times. Princeton has won 14 times. The current holders are the U.S. Naval Academy, who won it back-to-back 2006 and 2007.

New event record times were set in the 2007 edition of the regatta. Harvard now holds the record time in the Varsity Heavyweight event (5:27.005) and Dartmouth holds the Varsity Lightweight event record (5:38.894).

On the women's side, Yale won the openweight division last season and has been the champion of the event two of the last three years. Wisconsin's lightweights have brought home the title for the past three years in their division.