Baala Shakya, Staff Photographer

As winter fades along the Housatonic River, anticipation grows at Yale’s Gilder Boathouse in Derby, Conn., where the lightweight crew team prepares itself for the upcoming 2025 spring racing season. 

“The team had a good winter of indoor training that led to a very competitive and energized spring break here on the balmy Housatonic,” said Andrew Card, who has served as the team’s head coach since 1990.

This year’s lightweight crew team captain Dylan Oberst ’25 and commodore Timmy Parsons ’27 seek to build on last year’s spring season success, which saw the Elis winning the Van Amringe, Bulldog and Vogel Cups and a postseason highlighted by a silver medal in the 4V and a bronze medal in the 3V at the Eastern Sprints Championship.

“We have a highly motivated team,” Oberst said to Yale Athletics. “I can’t wait to get the work started alongside the senior class, Timmy and the rest of my teammates.”

Parsons told the News that the commitment team members have shown “since the summer and day one on campus has shown through” each day with continued improvements. After a productive winter indoor season, he noted that he is “looking forward to the work ahead that will set us up to perform.”

The team began the school year competing at the Head of the Housatonic in the fall, one of the largest single-day regattas in the country. The Bulldogs closed the fall season with a lone entry at the Head of the Charles in Cambridge, Mass., the world’s largest three-day regatta.

“[The] Head of the Housatonic and Head of the Charles were full of positive energy and excitement from the team, which led into a productive winter season,” Parsons said. “I am thrilled that racing is finally upon us. I know it will fly by as we set our sights on the championship season in May and June.”

At the Head of the Charles, the team placed seventh in a field of thirteen with a time of 14:29, coming in just two seconds after sixth-place Georgetown and ahead of MIT. Harvard took the top spot, followed by Cornell and Penn in second and third, respectively.

Following the fall racing season, the Bulldogs have been hitting the ergs and returned to training on the Housatonic over spring break.

Card told the News that the Y150 team tried to plan early scrimmages ahead of the racing season’s official start, but it was “unfortunately” postponed and could not be rescheduled.

“We’re hoping to get into a good weekly rhythm now that classes are back in session,” said Card.

Y150 will kick off its spring season this Saturday, March 29. They are set to clash against the United States Naval Academy at the neutral location of Lake Carnegie in Princeton, New Jersey. The stakes are high as the two teams vie for the Johnson Cup in the 1V and the overall regatta championship cup, which pays homage to Yale Lightweight rower and former Navy Lightweight coach Jon Van Amringe ’70.

In last year’s matchup against the Naval Academy, the 1V race was tightly contested, with Navy edging out Yale by a narrow margin and securing the Johnson Cup with a time of 6:10.87 against Yale’s 6:13.14. However, the 2V and 3V boats secured first-place finishes, earning the Bulldogs the Van Amringe Cup for the highest overall team finish.

Following the showdown with Navy, the Bulldogs are set to face off against the Georgetown Hoyas the next day for the Bulldog Cup and the MIT Beavers for the Joy Cup in Princeton, New Jersey, on Sunday, March 30.

“From this week forward, it’s all about the racing, and the team is eager to get after it,” said Card.

Last year’s inaugural victory against the Hoyas in the varsity eight earned Yale the right to etch the first entry into the Bulldog Cup, which was introduced in the 2024 season to commemorate the burgeoning rivalry between the two squads.

The lightweight team then faces a series of Ivy opponents. On April 12, the Y150 team will head to Philadelphia to compete for the Dodge Cup against Columbia and Penn on the Schuylkill River, followed by Yale’s lone home race of the season, the Durand Cup versus Dartmouth on April 19.

To finish the regular season, Yale will return to Lake Carnegie in Princeton, New Jersey, to compete for the Goldthwait and Vogel Cups, continuing the historic rivalry against Harvard, the recent Head of the Charles champions, and Princeton, who finished just ahead of Yale at the 2024 IRA Championships.

Following the end of the regular season, the championship season includes a trip to the Eastern Sprints Championship, which will take place on May 18 in Worcester, Mass., and the IRA Championships, which will be hosted on the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey, from May 30 to June 1.

Longtime crew fan, Oscar Solberg ’28, who attended the Head of the Charles Regatta over Fall break, told the News that “he predicts big things for the team this season.” He plans on attending the Yale-Harvard Regatta at the end of the season.

The 158th edition of the Yale-Harvard Regatta, the oldest intercollegiate sporting event in the U.S., is set to take place on Saturday, June 7, in New London, Conn.