April 25, 2008

NEW HAVEN, CT - Yale's heavyweight crews will race Princeton and Cornell this Saturday in defense of the Carnegie Cup. Last year, the varsity boat won the trophy for the first time in head coach John Pescatore's tenure. In 2007's racing the Bulldogs won two out of five events: the third varsity eight and the all-important varsity eight. In both races, the Bulldogs had two-second margins over the second place finishers.

This year's Carnegie Cup looks to be just as competitive with all three teams seeing similar results in the season thus far. Cornell's varsity is coming off of a win over Georgetown and losses to Syracuse and Navy. Princeton's varsity has seen a second-place finish at the San Diego Crew Classic, a win over Georgetown, Penn, Columbia and MIT and a loss to Harvard.

Polls reflect this, ranking the three competitors uncomfortably close to one another. For instance, the latest Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) poll for the second varsity places Cornell, Princeton and Yale in fifth, sixth and seventh places, respectively. In the same poll, Princeton's varsity eight is ranked No. 4, while Yale is No. 7 and Cornell is No. 10. The EARC poll for the freshman eight puts Yale at No. 2, Princeton at No. 4 and Cornell at No. 9.

Nationally, Yale's varsity eight is currently ranked No. 10, while Princeton is 5th and Cornell is 13th. While polls are often meaningless in predicting the outcome of races, they certainly do make for exciting regattas. Saturday's Carnegie Cup will undoubtedly be one of those, with the Bulldogs hoping to build on last year's win.

Race Schedule

2F - 8:45 a.m. (C-Y)

3V - 9:00 a.m. (C-P-Y)
1F - 9:15 a.m. (C-P-Y)
2V - 9:30 a.m. (C-P-Y)
1V - 9:45 a.m. (C-P-Y)

Yale Boatings

1V
C: Michael Ciccotti 

8: Erik Woelber 

7: Henry Cole 

6: Andrew Collard
5: Pieter Morgan 

4: Lucas Spielfogel
3: Sean Hurley 

2: Matthew Barber
1: Jack Vogelsang

2V
C: Rebecca Burgoyne-Allen 

8: Nolan Maher 

7: Richard Littlehale 

6: David Mcintosh 

5: James Tormey 

4: Sean Riordan 

3: Keir Evans 

2: Dominique Fenton 

1: Antonio Sirianni

3V
C: Emily Flaxman
8: Charlie Pfeifer
7: Tyler Guth
6: Vincent Granata
5: Charles Moore
4: William Walter
3: Colin Campbell
2: David Hamstra
1: Kristoffer Strauss

1F 

C: Carolyn Tobkin 

8: Spyridon Mastroyannis 

7: Marcos Carzolio 

6: Duncan Logie 

5: Ezra Mitchell 

4: Matthew Ramlow 

3: Daniel Klassen 

2: Nathaniel Reeve 

1: Benjamin Grant

Report filed by Dominique Fenton '10, Yale Sports Publicity