For the second year in a row, the Yale heavyweight crew fell to the Brown Bears in its season opener.
The contest, which took place on the Seekonk River in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, saw Eli losses in all three races — both the first and second varsity and the freshman boat. Captain Andrew Collard ’09 said the races were below par as a season opener.
“[The] results were pretty disappointing,” he said. “The third varsity had a pretty good race, but all of the other boats would have liked to do better.”
The Yale varsity team, led by Collard with Rebecca Burgoyne-Allen ’10 as coxswain, posted a time of 5:52.9 against Brown’s 5:43.0, losing by almost 10 seconds. A year ago, the varsity lost to Brown by 1.66 seconds.
The second and third varsity boats both raced and fell to Brown’s second varsity. The Brown second varsity crew posted at time of 5:46.45 compared to 5:51.86 for the Yale second varsity and 5:54.11 for the Yale third varsity, winning by a margin of 6 and 9 seconds, respectively.
The freshman crew, led by Robert Macmillan ’12 at stroke, Patrick O’Malley ’12 at bow and Morgan Welch ’12 as coxswain, also saw Brown come in first with a time of 5:42.77. The Yale freshmen finished 9.13 seconds later with a time of 5:51.90.
Last Saturday’s performance was not of the same caliber as last year’s opener, head coach John Pescatore said.
“It was not nearly as good as last year’s opener,” he said. “We were not fast enough yesterday and need to work very hard to get things on track.”
Collard added that Brown’s home course advantage was not an excuse for the poor performance.
“The Brown course is nice. Becca, our coxswain, did a good job yesterday and I don’t think that was a factor at all,” Collard said.
Looking to the future, the heavyweight crew will resolve to step up its game. Collard noted that the fact that the loss came at an early point in the season would propel the team to work harder.
“We clearly need to get faster, but it’s good we found that out now,” Collard said. “We have to improve in every area and be more focused and determined in each practice.”
Yale’s varsity boat will compete in San Diego, Calif., in the 36th San Diego Crew Classic on Saturday and Sunday. And the entire team will compete on April 11, when Dartmouth comes to the Gilder Boathouse in search of the Olympic Axe.