May 18, 2008

WORCESTER, Mass. - Yale's varsity eight came to the Eastern Sprints ranked No. 10 out of 18 crews competing for gold. It left with a solid fourth-place finish in the grand final. But getting there was not easy.

The Bulldogs battled against No. 3 Harvard, No. 4 Princeton, No. 9 Cornell, No. 15 Pennsylvania, and No. 16 Rutgers to qualify for the final. Yale went into the prelim knowing that to advance to the grand final it needed to finish in first or second place. Having already lost to both Princeton and Cornell in the dueling season, Yale's varsity eight had a challenge on their hands. But the Bulldogs rose to the occasion and fought Princeton and Harvard the whole way down the 2000-meter course to come in second, just .137 seconds after Princeton and .685 seconds ahead of Harvard. The photo finish, similar to the one at last year's Yale-Harvard Regatta, sent Harvard to the petite final for the first time in forty-four years. Harvard ended up second in the petite to Navy.

Varsity Prelim Results:
1 Princeton University 05:59.970
2 Yale University 06:00.107
3 Harvard University 06:00.792
4 Cornell University 06:07.376
5 University of Pennsylvania 06:17.023
6 Rutgers University 06:19.815

The varsity eight of Pieter Morgan (stroke), Andrew Collard (seven), Jack Vogelsang (six), James Tormey (five), Henry Cole (four), Lucas Spielfogel (three), Sean Hurley (two), Erik Woelber (bow), and Michael Ciccotti (cox), along with Princeton's, then faced No. 1 Brown, No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 5 Northeastern, and No. 6 Columbia in the grand final. The entire race can be viewed online by clicking here. The Bulldogs finished fourth after Wisconsin, Brown, and Princeton.

Varsity Grand Final Results:
1 University of Wisconsin 06:09.719
2 Brown University 06:13.210
3 Princeton University 06:13.387
4 Yale University 06:17.816
5 Northeastern University 06:19.206
6 Columbia University 06:25.941

The first freshman eight came into the Sprints ranked fourth and left unchanged with a fourth-place finish in the grand final. The eight of Benjamin Grant (stroke), Duncan Logie (seven), Marcos Carzolio (six), Nathaniel Reeve (five), Ezra Mitchell (four), Matthew Ramlow (three), Daniel Klassen (two), Spyridon Mastroyannis (bow) and Carolyn Tobkin (cox) came second to Brown in the qualifying heat after a rocky start. In the grand final the eight faced No. 1 Harvard, No. 2 Princeton, No. 3 Brown, No. 5 Northeastern, and No. 6 Syracuse. There were no upsets in this race, as the top six in the grand final were identical to the preliminary rankings. The grand final can be viewed here.

Freshman Prelim Results:
1 Brown University 06:00.400
2 Yale University 06:05.327
3 Cornell University 06:08.532
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 06:18.841
5 George Washington University 06:21.667
6 University of Pennsylvania 06:22.163

Freshman Grand Final Results:
1 Harvard University 05:57.635
2 Princeton University 05:58.646
3 Brown University 05:58.772
4 Yale University 06:05.501
5 Northeastern University 06:09.328
6 Syracuse University 06:10.812

The second varsity boat came into the Sprints ranked No. 7 and found itself in a similar situation as the varsity. To advance to the grand final it needed to beat either No. 1 Harvard or No. 6 Princeton. The Yale second varsity of Nolan Maher (stroke), Richard Littlehale (seven), Max Kramer (six), Antonio Sirianni (five), Dominique Fenton (four), Keir Evans (three), Sean Riordan (two), Matthew Barber (bow) and Rebecca Burgoyne-Allen (cox) came in third, about three seconds after second-place Princeton. Despite posting the fifth fastest time in the prelims, the Bulldogs were sent to the petite final where they finished second (eighth, overall) to Syracuse. The petite final can be watched here.

Second Varsity Prelim Results:
1 Harvard University 06:01.254
2 Princeton University 06:03.957
3 Yale University 06:06.811
4 Georgetown University 06:12.331
5 George Washington University 06:16.117

Second Varsity Petite Final Results:
1 Syracuse University 06:14.919
2 Yale University 06:19.383
3 US Naval Academy 06:21.019
4 Georgetown University 06:23.851
5 Columbia University 06:26.725
6 Boston University 06:27.670

The third varsity of Tyler Guth (stroke), Vincent Granata (seven), Charles Moore (six), David Hamstra (five), David Mcintosh (four), William Walter (three), Kristoffer Strauss (two), Charlie Pfeifer (bow) and James Luccarelli (cox) also did not advance to the grand final. The Bulldogs 3V came to Sprints ranked as the No. 7 crew. The boat faced No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 3 Cornell, No. 6 Brown and No. 10 Holy Cross in its prelim and needed a top-three finish to advance to the grand final. The Bulldogs came fourth to Wisconsin, Cornell and Brown. There was no petite final for this event so the Bulldogs' prelim time was used to place them in 8th overall.

Third Varsity Prelim Results:
1 University of Wisconsin 06:00.423
2 Cornell University 06:01.469
3 Brown University 06:05.514
4 Yale University 06:09.761
5 College of the Holy Cross 06:39.444

The second freshman eight was ranked No. 2 going into Sprints. There were no prelims for this event, just a grand final that can be viewed here. The boat of George Moran (stroke), Patrick Vergara (seven), William Martin (six), Benjamin Ortiz (five), Kevin Gallagher (four), Jason Sullivan (three), Simon Warren (two), Joseph Porter (bow) and Francesca Yi (cox) finished third behind Harvard and Wisconsin.

Yale's heavyweight crews now have a little over two weeks before the IRA Regatta on June 5th.

Report filed by Dominique Fenton '10, Yale Sports Publicity