Columbia
Belly of the Carnegie (freshmen)
Rowing Newcomers Make Collegiate Debut in Lake Carnegie Competition
11/13/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing, Lightweight Rowing
The men's lightweight freshmen were ninth and 14th in a 25-boat field, while the novice women were 14th and 15th, of 24.
Columbia B actually finished ahead of Columbia A in the lightweight race. The B boat was timed in 14:20.02, while the A shell was timed in 14:44.78.
“A” and “B” designations in the Belly are not meant to signify first-string and second-string, as coaches are charged with forming two boats of equal strength.
In fact, a “B” shell, Navy B, won the lightweight race in 13:47.19. Yale A, Yale B, Navy A, and Cornell A made up the top five, while Harvard B, Cornell B, and Harvard A preceded Columbia. The Lions topped both Princeton boats, timed in 14:32.05 and 14:32.71, as well as shells from Georgetown, Penn, Dartmouth, Delaware and MIT.
“That shows we're right in the middle of the pack, in a very competitive league,” freshman lightweight coach Ed Golding said. “It's nice to be there, but it's not where we want to be.”
While the experience was a pleasant one for Columbia, it presaged hard work in the months to come.
“This was a great regatta on a nice day,” Golding continued, “and it was good to be there, but it shows that we have work to do.”
Assistant women's coach Malcolm Doldron had similar sentiments, noting that his inexperienced novices have much work ahead of them.
Columbia finished 14th and 15th in 17:38.58 and 17:44.72, more than two minutes behind the winner, Princeton A in 15:28.79, Dartmouth A (15:42.42), Cornell A (15:48.73) and Princeton B (15:48.96).
“We've got a long way to go to break into those crews who were one to two minutes ahead of us,” Doldron noted. “There's a steep learning curve, especially when you consider that this was the first regatta ever for 13 of our 18 novices.”
The Columbia boats beat crews from Villanova, Georgetown, Rutgers and George Washington, as well as two women's lightweight entries from the Hoyas and MIT.
“We were in the middle of the pack,” Doldron said. “That's really tough [to achieve] when many of them had never held an oar before we began a few weeks ago. We need to get them in the weight room and erg room.”
The heavyweights coaches chose not to enter any freshmen in the Belly of the Carnegie after some rowed in the Princeton Chase in October.
