Women's Rowers Beaten by Defending Sprints Champion Yale

Sunday, March 26

Orchard Beach Lagoon

TBA

Columbia

YALE*, PENN*

Women's Rowers Beaten by Defending Sprints Champion Yale

3/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing

By: Columbia University Athletics

PELHAM, N.Y. -- It's been nearly a year since Yale won the Eastern Sprints to claim eastern women's rowing supremacy, but the Bulldogs were able to pick up right where they left off last May, topping both Columbia and Penn in the Connell Cup Regatta Saturday at the Lions' Orchard Bay Lagoon site.

Columbia took second honors when it defeated Penn in both the varsity and second varsity events, the only two eight-oared races the Quakers entered. The Lions topped the Quakers in the varsity race by eight seconds and in the second varsity by 9/10 of a second, pulling ahead in the final 50 meters.

Yale won all five races it entered, taking the varsity event by 9.5 seconds over Columbia, and the second varsity by a 13.4-second margin over the Lions. The Bulldog novice eight defeated Columbia by 11.1 seconds. Yale also won both varsity four-oared events, with Penn second and Columbia third. Penn beat Columbia by almost 10 seconds in the Novice Fours.

"We did some things well," head coach Melanie Onufrieff pointed out, "and we have some things to work on."

Novice coach Shannon Moore echoed Onufrieff. "Columbia raced hard," she said, "but Yale and Penn did some things better. We're going to make some changes, technical changes. We have some work ahead of us."

All crews had to deal with less than favorable weather conditions, including overcast skies and 42-degree temperatures. Although rowers in the opening races, the novice eights and "A" varsity fours, competed in largely wind-free weather, the following crews had to deal with crossing tailwinds increasing in intensity over the course of the regatta.

Columbia travels to Princeton next Saturday, April 1, for its second regatta of the northern season. It will face the Tigers, Rutgers, and Georgetown on Lake Carnegie. The following day, Columbia competes in another four-school regatta when it hosts UMass, Holy Cross, and Colgate at Orchard Beach.