The Cup, named after Cornell’s home course on the Cayuga Inlet, has become a hallmark of Yale’s early-season racing. Since 2003, Yale, Syracuse and Cornell have contended for the Cayuga Cup 12 times. The trophy has spent 11 of those years in New Haven, with a one-year stint in Ithaca in 2011.

Though Saturday brought constant rain and cross headwinds of up to 15 mph, the Bulldogs delivered. Their dominance, despite the harsh conditions, stands as a testament to their consistency and composure — strategies that put 12.12 seconds of river between Yale’s and Syracuse’s first varsities, compared to less than a second in the same race last year.

Team captain and first varsity rower Mia Levy ’25 expressed pride in the team’s performance under adverse weather conditions. 

“I’m really proud of how the team performed in tough conditions and pushed for big margins over our opponents,” Levy said to the News. “Looking forward, we are hoping to keep finding more speed as we stay focused on our championship season.”

Next weekend, Yale will challenge Dartmouth for the Class of 1985 Cup for this season’s first and only home race in Derby. This will be the Bulldog’s first dual season head race against the Big Green since 2022, when Yale crossed the finish line more than 35 seconds before Dartmouth.

Reflecting on the weekend, head coach Will Porter said to Yale Athletics, “We are making progress. We hit our focus on all boats. It was a good effort in tough conditions.”

Women’s crew began at Yale in 1972.

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At the U.S. Naval Academy, Yale’s co-ed team competed in the Open Atlantic Coast Championship Round 1A. Skippers Jack Egan ’25 and Stephan Baker ’26, with Elle Sykes ’27 and Ashley Highland ’27 as crew, faced challenging conditions on the water. 

Even with the weekend’s unusual wind, the team finished in eighth place after 18 races. This strong performance qualified them for the Championship Final, which will take place on Oct. 19 and 20 at Boston College.

“The wind came from a direction that was uncommon for the Severn River. It provided for lots of movement within the fleet due to the frequent and unexpected shifts. As a result, consistency was key,” Sykes said. “In addition, the chop provided by the many pleasure crafts made the venue even more difficult. Our team got progressively better as the weekend went on and practice at this location will be immeasurably helpful for us at nationals.”

Meanwhile, the women’s team was dominant at the Stu Nelson Regatta hosted by Connecticut College — by an impressive 78-point margin. 

The A division team, led by Emma Cowles ’25 and crews Ximena Escobar ’25 and Jessi Avila-Shah ’25, finished in second by a thin two-point margin. Skipper Carmen Cowles ’25 and Carmen Berg ’26 and Escobar as crew continued Yale’s momentum in B division with another decisive victory, finishing 26 points ahead. Freshman skipper Audrey Foley ’28 and crew Julia Miller ’26 shined in the C division, coming in first by a margin of 48 points. 

“Sailing at Conn this weekend was definitely tricky with the breeze being so unstable,” Cowles told the News. “Our goals as a team were to start clean and clear to be able to execute our plans. I’m really happy with how we worked as a team to continue to be successful on such a variable day.” 

The Yale team clinched another consistently assertive victory at the Sister Esther Trophy at Salve Regina University. Skipper Alex Adams ’26 and crew Ariana Borut ’27 took gold in the B division, while skipper Mathias Reimer ’27 and crew Annabel Woodworth ’28 secured second place in A division – together, Yale sailors navigated to first place overall.

Last year, Yale came in second for this trophy, just 13 points behind the University of Rhode Island. This year, their overall victory came with a wide 36 point-margin before second place.

“My skipper Alex and I focused on communication throughout the regatta,” Borut said. “The current was a big factor on the first day and something we used to our advantage.”

Next weekend, the Yale teams are cutting course for more upcoming regattas. They’ll compete in the Captain Hurst at Dartmouth, the Nevins at the Merchant Marine Academy and the Dave Perry Trophy on home waters at Yale — but the focus remains on preparing for the Open Atlantic Coast Championship Finals on Oct. 19 and 20.

Last year, Yale Sailing came in sixth out of 18 teams in the Open Atlantic Coast Championship Final.

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The co-ed team competed as a split squad — one crew at the Pine Trophy Regatta hosted by Coast Guard and another group at the Harry Anderson Jr. Regatta, which they hosted. The Pine Trophy crew clinched first place while two boats sent to the Harry Anderson Jr. Regatta clinched silver and bronze. The women’s team came in seventh for the Toni Deutsch Trophy hosted by MIT.

Yale’s match race team for the Pine Trophy in New London consisted of team captain Jack Egan ’25 as skipper and Mathias Reimer ’27, Alexander Adams ’26, and Emma Cowles ’25 as crew. Their victory, amidst the shifty and unpredictable sailing conditions of the Coast Guard’s course, also earns the Bulldogs a spot to compete in the New England Match Race Championship later this September.

Concurrently, the team hosted and competed on home waters for the Harry Anderson Trophy. The Elis put forth four boats in total, with two taking home second and third-place finishes.

“The weekend brought big swells, which made for some great surfing on the downwinds,” Ximena Escobar ’25, the women’s team captain, said to the News. “We had four teams competing, ultimately taking second and third place at the regatta, but more importantly, we had two freshmen sail their first college sailing regatta: Annabel Woodworth ’28, who sailed both days and Audrey Foley ’28, who hopped in the boat on Sunday!”

Finally, competing on the Charles River at the Toni Deutsch Regatta, the all women’s team finished seventh overall with 213 total points. In the ‘A’ division, Julia Miller ’26 and Dorothy Mendelblatt ’28 finished second — only two points behind the first-place team.

Serving as crew alongside the freshman skipper, Miller noted the tricky conditions on the Charles.

“On Saturday it was pretty light and shifty, which took some adjusting to,” Miller said. “Sunday brought stronger wind from a more stable direction and both teams did really well with first place finishes in both divisions. Overall it was a successful first regatta and a good learning experience for both freshman skippers.”

Next weekend, both the women’s and the co-ed team will compete at Brown in singlehanded sailing. The co-ed team will also compete at MIT for the Hatch Brown Trophy. Last year at the Hatch Brown, the Elis finished first overall, narrowly defeating Harvard by five points.

The women’s team will also compete for the Regis Trophy at Harvard, which they won in both 2021 and 2022.

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In a fierce early morning tailwind, the first four Bulldog boats came out on top of extremely competitive races: the largest margin at the finish was three seconds. The fifth varsity, however, fell to the Big Green by more than fifteen seconds. Last year, every Yale boat except the second varsity beat Dartmouth.

Head coach Mike Gennaro said that the team’s goal was to “expand through executing what we trained to do all week at practice,” characteristically highlighting the heavyweight’s emphasis on long-term development.

The third varsity race proved to be the most dramatic of the weekend. Yale and Dartmouth had close contact throughout the course and around the turn until, with just 100 meters to go, a Dartmouth rower’s oar caught under the water.

This mistake, which is called “catching a crab,” can create so much traction that it brings the boat to a stop. On Saturday, the Big Green’s accident slowed their boat just enough to allow Yale’s third boat to slip ahead and clinch the finish — the crew equivalent of a nerve-wracking buzzer-beater.

Despite this stroke of luck, and Yale’s dominant position in the majority of the day’s races, captain Harry Keenan ’24 said “Dartmouth are always a very gritty opposition and we never take anything for granted.”

Though clearly opposed to complacency, the team’s captain has plenty to be proud of. On Saturday, Keenan coxed the Yale varsity to a 2.6-second win over Dartmouth, securing the Olympic Axe. This triumph adds another year to the Axe’s tenure in Gilder Boathouse, which began in the trophy’s 2004 inception.

There’s still much to prove in the rest of the season – the team will take on Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania in New Jersey on Saturday, April 20th. If victorious, the Bulldogs will take home the Blackwell Cup, which has been awarded to the winner of the three teams’ varsity race since 1927. With 48 first-place finishes, including last year, the Elis have claimed the trophy more than either other squad.

Harry Geffen ’25 said that last weekend’s triumph against Dartmouth was a “good step in the right direction,” with only the Blackwell Cup against Columbia and Penn and the Carnegie Cup against Cornell and Princeton remaining before the end of the dual season.

The Bulldog varsity was ranked No. 5 in the most recent IRCA/IRA Men’s Heavyweight Varsity 8 poll.

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“Competing against five top programs in the country on a world-class racecourse was an ideal way to kick off the spring season,” said head coach Mike Gennaro. “It was a great experience for our oarsmen.”

Though these results are not consistent with the heavyweights’ customary across-the-board sweep, performance improvements between Friday heats and Saturday finals indicate that the Bulldogs were still shaking off the rust from a long winter. Though the second, third and fourth varsities lost to Brown in a headwind on Friday, Saturday’s tailwind carried the fourth varsity ahead of Brown’s boat and lessened the margins in the second and third varsity races.

In the weekend’s greatest triumph, the Bulldogs walked away with the Albert Cup trophy against Brown, which has been firmly housed in Gilder Boathouse since its inception in 2014.

“Winning cups and races [is] always a challenge, so that was a great start to the weekend,” said captain Harry Keenan ’24. “Brown are always strong, and they tested us all the way down the course.”

The Eli oarsmen will take this weekend off of racing before facing Dartmouth on the Housatonic on April 13 for their first and only home race of the season.

The winner will take home the Olympic Axe, which has also resided in Gilder Boathouse since its creation in 2004.

Harry Geffen ’25, who rowed in seven seat in Yale’s varsity last weekend, said that the team’s experience in Sarasota “helped us identify positives to take away and areas that we can work on moving forwards.”

Last year, Yale’s heavyweight crew team won four of five races in their dual against Dartmouth.

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Thankfully, the team is in extremely capable hands. Mike Gennaro, who served as Gladstone’s second in command since 2016, has moved up to head coach. Gennaro’s own rowing career is studded with success: among other accolades, he stroked the 2011 U.S. Under-23 8+ and set a world record, and he achieved an alternate position for the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games. 

Gennaro’s promotion was not the only staffing change instituted this season. The team also promoted its third coach, Matt Fluhr, to the second position, and hired longtime volunteer coach, Henri LaLiberte, as the third member of the coaching staff. In July 2023, LaLiberte served as an assistant coach alongside Gladstone for the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team.

“It’s been a seamless transition,” said Harry Keenan ’24, team captain and first varsity coxswain. “Mike brings to the table a ton of success and frankly he just knows what to do.”

Since the founding of Yale’s boat club in 1843, Keenan is only the second coxswain to be chosen as captain of the team. Gennaro said to Yale Athletics that Keenan’s captaincy as coxswain “speaks volumes to how much he is respected by our squad.”

Last year, Keenan coxed first varsity through an undefeated dual race season and earned First Team All-Ivy.

This Saturday, the top four heavyweight boats will take on Brown, Harvard, Northeastern, Washington and Stanford at the IRA Sarasota Invitational.

At this event last year, the first and fourth varsities came in first. The second varsity finished third to Brown and Washington, and the third varsity finished second to Washington.

The invitational marks the first competition of the team’s spring racing season — and it will be followed by three dual races, the Eastern Sprints and IRA Championships, and, finally, the 157th iteration of the iconic Yale-Harvard Regatta in June.

When asked about the team’s goals for the season, Keenan emphasized the importance of consistent work leading up to the day of a race, not just the crew’s performance on the day itself.

“Obviously we want to get results in the big races, but that comes from executing day in and day out,” the senior coxswain said. “We’re looking to go as fast as we can, and hopefully that is enough to bring home the medals we want.”

Yale is the oldest collegiate boat club in America.

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