Record-Setting CU Heavyweight Rowing Leads Fellow Teams into Weekend

The men’s heavyweight rowing team, coming off a historic weekend in which it won the Blackwell Cup for the first time in 67 years and the Maxwell Stevenson Cup for the first time since 1963, will lead all three of Columbia’s rowing teams into action this weekend.
After two extremely successful races, the heavyweights will head upstate to take on Syracuse University and Boston University in the Doc Lusins Cup at Syracuse, N.Y. This will be the 14th running of the Lusins Cup, with Columbia as the defending champion. All three of the competing teams won their events last weekend, with Boston University winning the Bill Cup, Syracuse winning the Goes Trophy and Columbia winning the aforementioned Stevenson and Blackwell Cups. Columbia’s weekend sweep earned them the row2k.com team-of-the-week honor as well as a national ranking. Each of the three teams competing in the Doc Lusins Cup are nationally ranked, with Columbia coming in at number 7, Syracuse at number 11, and Boston University at number 17.
“This is our last race of the regular season, we have high expectations for our performance,” sophomore Thomas Eichler said. “Syracuse is a fast crew, they raced Navy last weekend and beat them by a similar margin, so its going to be a tight race.”
The men’s lightweight team will race in two events this weekend, both at home. First, Columbia will race in the Geiger Cup against Cornell and MIT. Following the Geiger Cup, Columbia will host Dartmouth in the Subin Cup on Sunday. MIT is coming off a disappointing performance in the Biglin Bowl, as it placed a distant third to Dartmouth and Harvard, respectively. Cornell is coming off a defeat last weekend at the hands of national powerhouse Yale, as the Big Red was defeated by more than six seconds.
The Light Blue will then face the Big Green in the Sublin Cup on Sunday. Dartmouth comes into the race with momentum, having won the Biglin Bowl for only the fourth time in its history. The race will be Columbia’s second race in as many days, so the Lions will be looking to avoid both mental and physical fatigue.
The women’s rowing team will travel to Ithaca, N.Y. to compete in the Dunn Bowl against Ivy League foes Brown and Cornell. The race will be the women’s first competitive event since April 13, where they narrowly lost to Oregon State at the UVA Regattas. The host school, Cornell, is coming off a narrow victory in the Class of ’89 Points Plate over Penn and Rutgers. Brown is a national powerhouse for women’s crew and the defending NCAA champions. Since 1999, Brown has won the NCAA championships an astounding five times.