The women’s rowing team beat Radcliffe at the Class of 1975 Cup to finish in second place for the first time since 1996. Despite the strong headwinds on Saturday at Cayuga Inlet, the Red was able to come away with second place in the varsity race and victories in half of the day’s races.Pirates of the Cayuga Inlet: The women’s rowing team defeated Radcliffe to finish second in the Class of 1975 Cup for the first time since 1996. - By: Lindsay Myron

Princeton won the varsity eight race with a time of 6:51.9 to claim the title, and Cornell finished with a time of 7:09.8 –– good for second place. Princeton would continue the day with a victory in the second varsity eight race and the varsity four race, but Cornell won the other three races: the varsity four B, the third varsity and fourth varsity. Every Cornell boat with the exception of the second varsity eight team defeated Radcliffe.

All of these performances took place with very strong headwinds, going up to 16 miles per hour. Although the Red did not finish well last year because of weather conditions, the team was better prepared this year. Cornell was fortunate to practice in harsh conditions earlier in the week to become more familiar with the bad weather.

“We practiced in severe weather conditions on Thursday, when it was very windy,” said senior captain Harlan Trevithick. “But it was good to practice in those conditions because people felt more comfortable in the races.”

Racing in adverse weather also adds valuable experience for the team.

“Every race we learn something new. … We’re just taking each race and moving forward,” Trevithick said.

However, the team always wants to be prepared for the worst and wants to improve its performance in inclement weather nonetheless.

“We need more practice in the rain to improve but every team is always looking to do that and prepare for the wind,” said sophomore Niki Tsamis.

Overall, the team was impressive over the weekend after breaking its streak of finishing in third place. This year’s team is emerging as quite a force on the waters and an interesting note is that the third varsity team is still undefeated after three meets. Tsamis attributes the noticeable improvement to hard work during the winter training sessions, and practice.

“Just in terms of power, we’ve made dramatic improvements this year,” Tsamis said.

“It was a good day and we all raced hard. … We were more prepared to handle Princeton and Radcliffe this year than last year,” Trevithick said.

However, the team realizes that more work remains to be done.

“Princeton is extremely fast this year. We are working on our speed and we feel confident in closing the margin at the [EAWRC] Sprints [Championship],” Trevithick said.

In particular, Trevithick noted that the varsity boat needs to work on pre-race preparation.

“We need to work on pre-race warm-up and work on sharpening our focus. We need to be able to go into the next race with higher intensity,” Trevithick said.