Lightweight Men Perform Well in Princeton

Princeton, N.J. – MIT’s men’s lightweight crew travelled to the Princeton Three-Mile Chase on Sunday for this invitation only event. Making their fourth appearance at the race, the Engineers entered boats in the Varsity and Freshmen Lightweight Eight events as well as two boats in the Lightweight Fours events. All signs are positive that the Cardinal and Gray is gaining speed, but as head coach Ted Benford said after the race, “We are focused on continuing to develop into a competitive spring racing program.”

In the Freshmen Eight race, MIT powered its way to a fourth-place finish in a time of 14:32.990 ahead of “A” boat entries from Yale, Cornell, St. Joseph’s, Delaware and Georgetown. The boat was steered by coxswain Peter Florin followed by stroke seat Zach Segal, Cameron McAlpine, Sam Simons, Steven Freiberg, David Campos, Jamie Byron, Sam Reineman, and bow man Devin Cela. “It was a fun race for the guys but we are looking forward to racing in even lineups in New Hampshire,” said freshmen coach Andy Hilton referring to the Dartmouth Green Monster regatta to be held on Saturday, November 7.

In the Varsity Eight event, the Engineers finished 16th of 31 boats in a time of 14:06.609, just a second behind the Pennsylvania “A” entry and three behind Dartmouth “A”. This is the last fall race for the varsity to compete in eight seat boats as they next compete in four man shells in November. In the boat this week was coxswain Emily Shao guiding the way for Rico Suarez at the stroke seat, followed by Ryan Flynn, Aaron Blankstein, Nick Murlo, Dan Fourie, Justus Kebschull, Jameson Nash, and bow man, Keith Loebner.
In the Lightweight Fours events, MIT broke down some of its varsity and second varsity members into fours. Both boats raced hard as the “A” entry finished in a time of 16:16.828 and the “B” entry turned in a time of 17:01.883.

The freshmen lightweights will head north to Hanover, N.H. in two weeks for the Dartmouth Green Monster while the varsity finish up its fall season at the Foot of the Charles on November 21.