Men’s Heavyweight Rowing Enters Spring Opener With High Aspirations

Saturday, April 1

Hanover, N.H.

10:00 AM

Dartmouth College

MIT & Holy Cross

Photo by: Justin Lafleur

Men’s Heavyweight Rowing Enters Spring Opener With High Aspirations

3/31/2023 11:44:00 AM | Men's Heavyweight Rowing

The Big Green look to continue building on last season’s impressive finish

By: Justin Lafleur

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's heavyweight rowing team is set to open its spring season on Saturday when the Big Green host Holy Cross and MIT on the Connecticut River, in a regatta originally scheduled for Boston. The location change was announced on Thursday due to inclement weather expected, which includes high winds. Racing will begin at 10 a.m. with the Varsity Eight.

Dartmouth is coming off spring training in Clemson, South Carolina. The Big Green, who got on the water in Hanover this week, lost significant members of their Varsity Eight to graduation, but return a strong core.

"We graduated a strong class last spring, losing three oarsmen out of both our 1V and 2V. Those are big shoes to fill," said Wyatt Allen, Betsy and Mark Gates 1959 Head Coach of Men's Heavyweight Rowing. "They were talented guys and leaders. But we had strong performances in our lower boats at IRAs and Eastern Sprints, and younger guys are stepping up from that group and into our top lineups. They're more than capable of picking up where that group left off."

Allen is especially encouraged by the Big Green's progress over the fall and winter.

"We felt it was a really productive winter training segment for the group," he said. "The group that was here on campus training on the ergs and in the tanks did a really good job of being consistent in their work and improving throughout January, February and March. We had a very high percentage of the group PR on their 6k and 2k tests this winter. That's a really good sign. Psyched to see that high a rate of improvement for the group."

Many juniors who were off campus (due to the Dartmouth academic schedule in which students stay for their sophomore summers, but are off the following winter) trained remotely as well.

"We had three guys in New Zealand training with the West End Rowing Club," said Allen. "We had two guys training out at the California Rowing Club, which is basically the de facto national team training center for the men. And we had two guys down in Texas training at the Texas Rowing Center and they did a really good job down there.

"We're excited to have the group all back together and we feel like they're in a really good spot."

Last season, the Big Green saw five out of their six boats medal at Eastern Sprints. At IRAs, the 2V won a bronze medal, the 3V was in the grand final and 1V won the petite final.

Dartmouth begins the season seventh in the preseason IRCA/IRA national poll, ahead of four Ivy League programs.

"Last year was a great team performance," said Allen. "It's a big challenge to try and improve on that, but that's the goal. Right now, we're ranked seventh and we're in this cluster of very good, very fast programs. It'll be interesting over the next five or six weeks to see how it shakes out and where teams are relative to one another."