Heavyweight crew looks to take Lusins Trophy

All three Columbia crew teams will be racing this Saturday.

The heavyweight men’s crew will be looking to come back from its loss in the Blackwell Cup last weekend when it races Boston University and Syracuse for the Doc Lusins Trophy at its home course on Orchard Beach on Saturday. If the Orange can edge out the Terriers, Syracuse will win the Conlan Cup, for which the Light Blue is not competing.

Last year the heavyweights were on a winning streak of five cups when they dropped the Lusins race, coming in third in all three races. Syracuse came out ahead, winning the Conlan Cup with a time of 6:04.7. The Terriers took home the Lusins trophy with their second-place finish at 6:06.2, and the Lions trailed, finishing with a time of 6:14.1.

In their last race against BU, at the Head of the Charles in October, the Terriers finished in front of the Lions, finishing 20th with a time of 15:33.371, while Columbia finished 34th due to a one-minute penalty which was added to their unofficial time of 15:33.047, which would have been extremely close to BU.

The lightweights will also try to bounce back from last weekend’s race against Yale and Penn— in which they came in last— when they take on Cornell and MIT Saturday in Ithaca. Following that race, the Light Blue will travel back to its home course to race Dartmouth the next morning for the Subin Cup.

Last year, the Lions faced MIT and Cornell in Cambridge, Mass., coming in second behind Cornell and just barely ahead of MIT. The Big Red took the top spot with a time of 6:16.2, Columbia came in second with 6:24.8, and MIT closed with a time of 6:26.7.

The lightweights took home the Subin Cup last year, their first cup victory since 2006. The varsity eight boat came in at 5:39.10 in front of Dartmouth’s 5:43.58.

The women’s team will be traveling with the lightweights to Ithaca on Saturday to face Ivies Cornell and Brown in the Dunn Bowl. This will be a challenge for the Light Blue, which came in third out of three teams in last year’s race. It finished last with a time of 7:32.76, behind the Big Red’s 7:23.0. The Bears finished well-ahead of the pack with a time of 7:05.66.

When the women last faced Brown in the fall, Brown came in eighth with a time of 17:00.969, and Columbia came in 29th 18:37.640.
The women will start their race on Saturday at 8:40 a.m.