Princeton University
The Carnegie Cup: Cornell and Yale
Players Mentioned
Fourth-Ranked Yale Retains Carnegie Cup, Edges Third-Ranked Tiger Heavies
April 25, 2015 | Heavyweight Rowing
The fourth-ranked Yale Bulldogs retained the Carnegie Cup during an exciting showdown of Top-10 boats on the Cayuga Inlet Saturday morning. Third-ranked Princeton suffered its first loss of the season by only 1.5 seconds to the Bulldogs during the Tigers first road competition of the season.
Using a staggered start on the Cayuga, Princeton found itself a couple seats down early, and the Bulldogs were able to take advantage with a terrific start and a strong overall race.
"It was a tight race the whole way down," head coach Greg Hughes said. "Yale did a good job of capitalizing early. We fought back to about four seats down, but Yale really rowed a great race."
Yale took the race in 6:09.1, while Princeton finished second in 6:10.6. Cornell finished third in 6:16.3. The Tigers moved to 7-1 overall, 4-1 in the Ivy League, and they got their first taste of unfamiliar conditions during the weekend. Their next experience will be on Lake Quinsigamond, during the 2015 Eastern Sprints (May 17).
"It's part of rowing; you need to learn how to go to different courses and perform," Hughes said. "It's the first time we did that this season, and we'll work on improving there."
Each team won one of the top three races. The Princeton 2V remained undefeated this season in 6:20.2, more than three seconds ahead of Yale.
"We executed the race exactly as planned," junior Ryan Barker said. "We've always been quick in the first 500 meters and we were able to take a commanding lead early on, in order to keep two very fast Cornell and Yale boats at bay throughout the piece. However, we certainly have room to improve, seeing as our victory margin was established almost entirely in the first half of the race, so we will be keeping the final 1000 in mind in the coming weeks, I'm sure."
It's a young, talented boat, and Hughes has been very impressed — but not surprised — with its development this season.
"I'm not surprised at all," he said. "It speaks of the team. As a group, there has been a really solid level of training and performance. I'm really excited with those guys with how they rose to the challenge. They did an awesome job. There was some sickness there, so we made some changes, but they overcame it. It was awesome to see them have an obstacle and step up."
The 2V is not only undefeated this season, but it is coming off an incredible finish at the IRA Championships. Princeton took silver on Mercer Lake, finishing behind only California, and Barton was part of that exciting finale.
"That silver medal was certainly a great reward for a tough season," he said. "However, it serves as a constant reminder that we can always be better, faster, stronger. In the end, all I know is that we're working hard each day and we're tired each night when we go to bed.
"Collegiate rowing, especially this year, is incredibly dynamic," he added. "There is a tremendous amount of speed in the league this year, and every single boat out there is getting faster. In order to remain successful, we must be constantly improving. And I've certainly seen that in this crew. As a young boat, with only four upperclassmen out of nine, we've shown some solid maturity and commitment to working hard and achieving this goal."
The Tiger 3V finished in 6:19.7, about five seconds behind the host school. Cornell also took the 4V and 5V races.
Princeton will honor its Class of 2015 next Saturday morning while trying to retain the Content Cup during its regular season finale against Brown.
Varsity Eight
Yale 6:09.1
Princeton 6:10.6
Cornell 6:16.3
Second Varsity Eight
Princeton 6:20.2
Yale 6:23.6
Cornell 6:27.2
Third Varsity Eight
Cornell 6:14.9
Princeton 6:19.7
Yale 6:21.2
Fourth Varsity Eight
Cornell 6:39.1
Yale 6:42.8
Princeton 6:52.4
Fifth Varsity Eight
Cornell 6:32.1
Princeton 7:03.5
LINEUPS
1V
C Pesce
8 Masters
7 Konttinen
6 Mead
5 Barakso
4 Vystavel
3 Eble
2 Hamp
1 Benstead
2V
C Barton
8 Goldman
7 Barker
6 Northrop
5 D¹Agonstino
4 Livingstone
3 Chance
2 Lord
1 Francis
3v
Cox: McFall
8 Stein
7 Guyett
6 Grimberg
5 Bernhard
4 Romeyn
3 Wambersie
2 Bartolucci
1 Meder
4v
Cox Coates
8 Bradbury
7 Toch
6 Lawton
5 Johnston
4 Lindburg
3 Evans
2 Ruscus
1 Shaw
5V
C Sola
8 Dauson
7 Vaughn
6 Bartolucci
5 Ferguson
4 Michael
3 Whitlow
2 Lowery
1 Moskovitz