April 9, 2008

Washington, D.C. - Georgetown Men's Lightweight Crew opened its spring season on Saturday, April 5 with two races against three different opponents. In the morning, the Hoyas raced Princeton for the Fosburgh Cup on Carnegie Lake, and then traveled to Philadelphia, Pa. to face off with the Fighting Blue Hens from Delaware on the Schuylkill River.

In the morning race, Georgetown's varsity shell crossed the finish line third in 6:37.6 to Princeton's winning time of 6:25.1.

"The Princeton varsity found a comfortable rhythm quickly and took an early lead, as did Columbia," " men's varsity lightweight coach Evans Liolin said. "We are just beginning to sort ourselves out and the guys are focused." The junior varsity and freshman crews also lost to the Tigers, but were much closer than in years past, showing signs of good things to come from the Hoya Lights.

"Despite our disappointment in the morning, I think we took away valuable racing experience against other EARC crews," said Co-Captain Phil Cimbak '08 (Ambler, Pa./St. Joe's Prep). "We identified some particular areas to improve as we prepare for the rest of our season."

After traveling to Philadelphia, the Georgetown Lights won the Varsity 8 race with a time of 5:53.5, more than six seconds faster than a tough Delaware crew. The Hoyas won the 2V 8 comfortably and the Freshman/Novice 8 won a hard-fought battle that went the whole distance of the course.

"Today was a good test for us. All three of our crews improved on their morning racing and showed great resiliency," Liolin said. "We've emphasized the building of a strong team culture this year and the guys are just beginning to see the result of that unified effort."

The Hoyas travel to Boston, Mass. this weekend to race Yale and MIT on the Charles River.