Elis knock boats and nearly knock out Brown

COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY Despite its inexperience, the women's crew team nearly defeated defending national champions Brown last weekend.

The day before a race against Brown on Sat., Mar. 25, the women's crew team was looking to open its season with a bang, and it did just that. Unfortunately, the "bang" came as a result of a full-speed, head-on collision between the varsity eight and the U.S. men's national team. Luckily, the boats' splash guards caught the brunt of the blow, and the team escaped with little more than a destroyed rigger and a bruised back in the bow seat. Counting their blessings after such a dangerous collision, the Bulldogs were quick to accept profuse apologies from the national team's embarrassed coxswain and coach. Finally, after peeling their eyes off of the national team—whose underwear ad hangs in the women's locker room—the women were ready to focus their sights on the next day's race against Brown, the defending NCAA champions.

Going into the race, the team had little idea of where it stood. As an extremely young squad, the Elis saw this race against heavily favored Brown as a chance to judge their speed. Although the varsity and novice boats both came away with losses, the weekend showed the potential of the varsity crew. While Brown returned eight members from last year's championship boat, the Elis entered the race with mostly sophomores who had little varsity level experience. Facing such an accomplished squad, the team was shocked when it found itself ahead after the first 1,000 meters of the 2-km race. "We never envisioned being up at that point," Francine Chew, DC '00, said. Liza Kennedy, DC '02, echoed Chew: "We completely stunned ourselves."

Unfortunately, the unexpected success caused the Bulldogs to lose their focus, and Brown was able to pull ahead and defeat the Elis by just seven seconds. "When we analyzed the video, we could see exactly what we did wrong," Cate Wetmore, JE '02, explained. "When Brown took its move after the 1,000, we panicked, and instead of staying long and confident, we tightened up and rowed short." Attributing the loss to a lack of racing experience, the women are confident that their second race against Brown at the end of the season will find them better prepared.

W. Crew

Record: 0-1, 0-1 Ivy Recent Results: Lost at Brown. Coming Up: Sat., Apr. 1 vs. Penn and Columbia at Columbia.

The strong, if ultimately unsuccessful, performance against Brown seems to have marked a change of fortune for the women's crew team. The Bulldogs entered the season with no ranking and only a handful of upperclassmen. First-year coach Will Porter had to build the team up nearly from scratch. "Brown has a very experienced program, but our learning curve is going to be much steeper," Kennedy said after last weekend's race. As all of Yale's boats continue to find their speeds, they know they will start surprising people. "Our scores stack up with anybody else in the league," Chew claimed. "People don't expect us to perform like we now know we can."

Races on Sat., Apr. 1 against Pennsylvania and Columbia, two teams that are competing with Yale for spots in the middle of the league, will give the Bulldogs a chance to earn respect for their developing program. After nearly beating Brown, they have an extra measure of confidence against their next two Ivy opponents. "We know we (the varsity eight) have a strong first half and we've been working on finishing off our pieces," Wetmore said. "We're looking forward to a full pull this time." The crew has been working on composure and controlled aggression. "Finesse must go with our power, and we're getting much better at that," Chew explained. The team knows they must learn to maintain control when they find themselves up ahead, but they believe that the race against Brown has taught them how to keep composure near the end of a race.

When the Elis travel to New York to face Columbia and Penn this weekend, they expect things to start falling into place. As their experience grows and their confidence rises, no boat should be too far out of reach, and they may even have a shot at an NCAA bid. As long as all national team boats stay out of their way, the Bulldogs see no reason why they shouldn't expect smooth sailing.

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