Women's Rowing Tops Cornell, Threatens Brown
4/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
ITHACA, N.Y. -- It's customary for the Brown women's crews to sweep every race in the annual Dunn Bowl Regatta among the Bears, Columbia and Cornell. What isn't customary is for the Lions to give Brown something to worry about -- in this case, a varsity race in which Columbia missed upsetting the highly-ranked Bears by fewer than five seconds.
In Columbia's first trip to Ithaca since former Cornell head coach Melanie Onufrieff became the Columbia coach in September, 2004, the Lions captured three second places behind Brown and ahead of the Big Red -- in the varsity, second varsity, and second novice events. The host Cornellians were second, ahead of the Lions, in the novice eights and varsity fours.
The closest any team came to Brown, ranked fifth in the EAWRC coaches poll and ninth in the CRCA national poll, was the varsity eights race. The Bears were timed in 6:24.9 over a 2000-meter course characterized by flat water, but intermittent rain. Columbia was just 4.12 seconds off the lead in 6:29.1, with Cornell third in 6:37.3.
In the second varsity eights, the Lions finished 13.7 seconds behind the Bears, but 16 seconds in front of Cornell. And in the second novices, Brown's 6:53.9 beat Columbia by 17 seconds and Cornell by 21 seconds.
"We saw a good competitive effort from all our crews," Onufrieff said. "[Novice coach] Shannon Moore and I were pleased with the good progress we are making in trying to prepare for the Sprints." The Eastern Women's Sprints will be held in Camden, New Jersey on Sunday, May 14.
Columbia will conclude its regular season next Sunday, April 30, when it meets a red-hot Dartmouth team on the Connecticut River in Hanover, N.H. The Big Green varsity is ranked third in the EAWRC, and the novice eight is ranked second.
The results:
Varsity Eights (Dunn Bowl for winner of Cornell-Brown; Columbia rowing as a guest)
1. Brown, 6:24.9
2. Columbia, 6:29.1
3. Cornell, 6:37.3
Second Varsity Eights
1. Brown, 6:36.2
2. Columbia, 6:49.9
3. Cornell, 7:05.4
First Novice Eights
1. Brown, 6:41.7
2. Cornell, 6:56.2
3. Columbia, 7:03.1
Second Novice Eights
1. Brown, 6:53.9
2. Columbia, 7:10.8
3. Cornell, 7:14.7
Varsity Fours
1. Brown, 7:31.2
2. Cornell, 7:36.9
3. Columbia, 7:54.0
