Our Yale freshman from Rotorua : UPDATE

SENT TO THE DAILY POST 5.4.10

 

Harry Simperingham, formerly from Rotorua Boys High School, in 3 seat (3^rd from the left) in the Yale University Freshman Heavyweight 8 (F 8+)had his first win of his first year at Yale yesterday.Yale’s heavyweight rowing crews started their Spring season with three wins over Ivy League rivals Brown University. The Yale ‘Bulldogs’ won their Varsity coxed four (V4+), the 3^rd varsity (3V 8+) and the Freshman eight.

 

Collegiate men's rowing consists of two squads; a varsity and a freshman team. The varsity squad typically fields a Varsity Eight (V8+), a Second Varsity (2V 8+) or Junior Varsity Eight (J 8+) and a Varsity Four (V 4+). The varsity eight is the most prestigious boat, and teams try to make it the fastest boat possible. Rowers who don't make the varsity eight are usually placed in the 2V 8+ followed by the V4+. Coaches often swop rowers between boats during the season trying to make the fastest Varsity 8 possible. Most major regattas use the term second varsity when referring to the second boat fielded by a college.

 

Last year’s Yale –Brown regatta in Providence, Rhode Island, left the Yale ‘Bulldogs’ empty-handed. The Brown ‘Bears’ swept all three races: Varsity eight (V 8), 2V 8 and F 8. The Yale-Brown regatta begins  four weeks of cup races, ready for the Eastern Sprints on May 16th. This season there are  three home races for Yale and one away, along with the Eastern Sprints, IRA Regatta and Yale-Harvard Regatta. Following Brown, the Bulldogs will face Dartmouth in defense of the Olympic Axe on Apr. 10. Last year Yale’s wins over Dartmouth had the Olympic Axe stay at Yale’s Gilder Boathouse.

 

On Apr. 17, Yale will be in Philadelphia to face Ivy League  Universities; Columbia and Penn for the Blackwell Cup. At last year’s regatta, the ‘Bulldogs’ won three out of four races (2V 8, 3V 8 and 1F 8) but lost the 1V 8 and did not regain the Blackwell Cup.On Apr. 24 The ‘Bulldogs’ toughest test of the cup season will be Yale versus Princeton and Cornell for the Carnegie Cup on Yale water. Last year, the freshman eight (1F 8) took first place over Cornell and Princeton.After the Carnegie Cup and three weeks of training and preparation, the Bulldogs will line up at Eastern Sprints on May 16.

 

Eastern Sprints serves as a pseudo League Championship and helps build momentum for the three-day Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championship Regatta that begins on June 5. At IRAs, Yale will face top teams from throughout the nation in what has become collegiate rowing’s national championship.

 

The 145th Yale-Harvard Regatta on May 29 is America’s oldest collegiate athletic competition. The annual regatta held in New London, Connecticut , normally takes place after the IRA Regatta. This year, however, Yale and Harvard crews will have to go from racing 2,000 meters at Eastern Sprints, to racing two, three or four miles in New London, and back to 2,000 meters at the IRA—all in a three-week period.