One last regatta for heavyweight crew

Temperatures may have dipped below freezing, but men’s heavyweight crew has not abandoned the river just yet.

The Bulldogs will wrap up their fall season with the Foot of the Charles Regatta on Saturday Nov. 22. They will take to the waters of the Charles River in Boston for the 2.5-mile race before retiring for winter training.

In addition to Ivy opponents like Dartmouth, Harvard and Brown, the Elis will also go up against Boston University, whom they faced in October’s Princeton Chase and whose varsity four boat took second to first-place Yale with a time just 1.3 seconds behind the Bulldogs’ finish.

But if the results of the Princeton Chase are any indication of upcoming performance, the Elis should come out of Saturday’s races with a solid number of wins under their belts, especially since, in the words of head coach John Pescatore, “the crews have improved their speed each weekend of racing this fall.” In the Chase, Yale’s heavyweights took first not only in the varsity four but also in the varsity eight and freshman eight, leaving Princeton to take second in both events. (The Tigers do not participate in the Foot of the Charles.)

After this weekend, the Elis will begin their winter training and will not compete in another regatta until March 28, when they will face the Bears in Providence, R.I.

Swimmers to Boston for Terrier Invite

The Yale men’s and women’s swimming teams travel to Boston today to compete in the Terrier Invitational, which will take place over three days. The men are coming off a big win against Columbia, defeating the Lions, 172-128, while the women look to bounce back from a close loss to Columbia last week, 155-145. Last year, the men took second at the Terrier Invitational while the women came in seventh. After losing to Columbia last season by a much larger margin, 173-127, the women’s team looks much stronger than last year and will look to place even higher at the Terrier Invite. The men’s team will look for strong performances by its freshmen, as the team’s captain, Alex Righi ’09, will not be competing at the race. After the Terrier Invite, both the men and women return to New Haven to compete against Southern Connecticut State University on Nov. 24 at Kiphuth Exhibition Pool.

XC finishes with IC4A and ECAC Championships

After a strong showing at the NCAA Northeast Regional Cross Country Championship meet at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, the men’s and women’s teams will compete again this weekend at the IC4A Championships and the ECAC Championships, respectively. Despite not qualifying for the national NCAA meet, both teams hope to ride on the success of the previous week, in which they each had to compete against big-name schools such as Syracuse and Boston College. Last week, captain Jake Gallagher ’09 led the men’s team with a time of 33:02.0 in the 10k race for 35th overall, while captain Kelli Buck ’09 led the women’s team with a time of 22:33.1 for 37th overall. Each team placed 11th in the meet despite the strong competition. After disappointing performances at the Heptagonal Championships last month, Yale’s performance at regionals bodes well for this weekend’s meets.—All reports by Monica Mark and Marc Beck