Yale Athletics

As the class of 2025 prepares to graduate, the Yale lightweight crew team can look back on four seasons of camaraderie and comebacks.

In the fall of 2021, the Bulldogs returned to racing after a three-year pandemic hiatus. At the Head of the Charles, Yale’s first varsity eight surged from a seventh-place starting position to claim gold. In their first race in the spring of 2022, the Bulldogs upset No. 1 Navy at Mercer County Park.

The Bulldogs didn’t let up, and Yale’s 2021-22 campaign ended with a sweep of postseason honors: Coach Andy Card was named Coach of the Year in the Ivy League and the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges, or EARC, and the varsity eight earned EARC Crew of the Year.

The 2022-23 season built on that legacy. In the fall, Yale defended the Eads Johnson Cup and Van Amringe Cup. But in April, Yale lost the Dodge Cup to Columbia by just 0.1 seconds, and the Goldthwait Cup slipped away to Princeton.

The 2023-24 season saw new leadership in captain Itai Almogy ’24. The Bulldogs overcame a near-length deficit to capture the inaugural Bulldog Cup over Georgetown in front of a raucous home crowd. In that spring’s storied HYP regatta, Yale shocked both Harvard and Princeton.

For 2024-25, the torch passed to graduating senior captain Dylan Oberst ’25. Under his captaincy, the team defended the Van Amringe Cup, reclaimed the Johnson Cup and added victories in the Bulldog Cup and Joy Cup.