May 11, 2005
Three Columbia rowing squads, the novice women's eight and two men's freshman lightweight eights, will be aiming for Eastern Sprints gold when they take to the water Sunday.
The Columbia women's crews will compete May 15 in the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges championships, the EAWRC Sprints, on the Cooper River in Camden County, N.J. Their male counterparts, the men's heavyweight and men's lightweight crews, will row in the EARC Sprints, staged by the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges on the same day on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.
In the most recent rankings by the EAWRC and EARC coaches, both the Columbia novice women's eight and the men's first and second freshman lightweights eight were ranked second -- the women behind Brown and the men behind Navy. The women's boat is second of 15 schools, the first freshman lightweights are second of 12, and the second freshmen are second of five..
Coach Shannon Moore's Lion women compiled a 10-2 record. They were beaten by Brown, by a six-second margin, in a race April 23 in Providence. They were also charged with a loss to Yale, currently ranked seventh, on March 26 in Derby, Conn. Actually, Columbia finished first, beating Yale by four seconds and Penn by 26, but the Bulldogs were awarded the victory when both Columbia and Penn were disqualified for lane violations on the difficult Housatonic River course.
The Columbia lightweight first freshmen, coached by John Parker, also went 10-2 this season, their first under the former Princeton and U.S. National Team assistant coach. His squad lost was beaten by Princeton and Navy in its first three races, and then hit its stride. The Lions defeated nine straight opponents, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and Georgetown. They fell to Princeton in Princeton by just 6/10 of a second, and to Navy in New York by seven seconds. The lightweight second freshmen were 4-3. The varsity lightweight crew is ranked 10th of 12, and the second varsity is 10th of 11.
The men's heavyweight varsity eight is ranked 13th of 16, the freshman eight is 14th of 16, and the second freshmen are seventh of nine.
The Lion women's varsity is ranked eighth of 17 in the EAWRC coaches poll, and is listed among "others receiving votes" in the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association/US Rowing national poll.
The rankings:
Women's Rowing
Varsity Eights, NCAA Division I -
1. Princeton
2. Cal-Berkeley
3. Michigan State
4. Ohio State
5. Radcliffe (Harvard)
6. Yale
7. Michigan
8. Brown
9. Virginia
10. Stanford
EAWRC Coaches
Varsity Eights -
1. Princeton
2. Yale
3. Radcliffe (Harvard)
4. Brown
5. Syracuse
6. Boston U.
7. Navy
8. COLUMBIA
9. Cornell
10. Dartmouth
Novice Eights -
1. Brown
2. COLUMBIA
3. Cornell
4. Princeton
5. Dartmouth
6. Rutgers
7. Yale
8. Boston U.
9. Radcliffe (Harvard)
10. Navy
EARC Coaches
Men's Lightweights
Varsity Eights -
1. Harvard
2. Navy
3. Cornell
4. Yale
5. Georgetown
6. Penn
7. Rutgers
8. Princeton
9. Delaware
10. COLUMBIA
Second Varsity Eights -
1. Harvard
2. Navy
3. Cornell
4. Princeton
5. Yale
6. Georgetown
7. Penn
8. Dartmouth
9. Rutgers
10. COLUMBIA
Freshman Eights -
1. Navy
2. COLUMBIA
3. Princeton
4. Yale
5. Harvard
6. Cornell
7. Dartmouth
8. Penn
9. Rutgers
10. Delaware
Second Freshman Eights -
1. Navy
2. COLUMBIA
3. Harvard
4. Cornell
5. Delaware
Men's Heavyweights
Varsity Eights -
1. Harvard
2. Princeton
3. Northeastern
4. Navy
5. Brown
6. Cornell
7. Dartmouth
8. Yale
9. Boston U.
10. Wisconsin
11. Penn
12. Rutgers
13. COLUMBIA
14. Syracuse
15. Georgetown
Freshman Eights -
1. Brown
2. Harvard
3. Penn
4. Princeton
5. Northeastern
6. Boston U.
7. Navy
8. Yale
9. Georgetown
10. Wisconsin
11. Syracuse
12. Rutgers
13. Cornell
14. COLUMBIA
15. Dartmouth
Second Freshman Eights -
1. Brown
2. Harvard
3. Navy
4. Rutgers
5. Boston U.
6. Syracuse
7. COLUMBIA
8. Georgetown
9. MIT
