This weekend, the Columbia women’s rowing team will compete against Northeastern for the Woodbury Cup. Northeastern is a team that has raced remarkably well this season—the Huskies only lost one varsity race to the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. After a victory last weekend, the Huskies are now an impressive 9-1. The Lions will be looking to end Northeastern’s winning streak just in time for Eastern Sprints.

The Huskies were able to beat last weekend’s opponent, UMass, by an outstanding margin of seven lengths. It was clear from the start of the race that Northeastern was going to run away with the contest. By the time the Huskies had reached the 500-meter mark, they were racing in open water with the Minutemen nowhere to be found. The Huskies ended up crossing the line in a time of 6:35.5, a full 23 seconds ahead of UMass. While this does appear impressive, the Lions are also coming off a good session last weekend, which they hope will carry into the race for the Woodbury Cup.

The Light Blue competed against Brown and Cornell last weekend. Both are strong crews with Brown being one of the top squads in the nation. Columbia, however, would not allow this to cloud its approach to the race. When the teams started, it appeared as if Columbia might be left behind. However, this was not the case. Once the Bears took the lead, the Lions charged after the Big Red and continued to cut into Cornell’s lead until the Light Blue was ahead. The end result was a second-place finish for Columbia against a team that the Lions had trailed for the majority of the race.

While Northeastern does have a top-notch program, this does not mean that Columbia cannot come back from a rough start and win.

In addition to the women’s action, the heavyweight team will send out its sub-varsity squads against Navy on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J. Earlier this season, the varsity eight boat was able to come away with an impressive win over the Midshipmen and the sub-varsity boats will aim to follow in their teammates’ path. In last week’s contest, none of the sub-varsity groups were able to come away with a win against Syracuse or Boston College. However, the Light Blue looks to change these tides and return from New Jersey with another Columbia victory over the Midshipmen.