The rowing was all about New London this year, and the University crews kept in their schools; but the Freshmen met, and the races were in favor of the younger crews. Cornell was let into a race between the Freshmen of Yale and Columbia, and won by a couple of lengths. Yale finished second ; then Columbia beat the Har vard Freshmen. Columbia did not have a Uni versity eight, and the race was between only Pennsylvania and Cornell. Cornell won by nine teen seconds, making a new world's record of 14.43 for three miles. Yale did not have much of a struggle with Harvard, and won without exertion by eleven seconds.
It seemed as though the Harvard lights of rowing had been snuffed. Yale had won five straight years, and in seven years Harvard had but one victory. Yale, though they would not row with Cornell, sought a race with Oxford to decide the championship. The race was arranged, conditioned upon Yale again beating Harvard, and this is the reason that it was not rowed. Harvard had another revolution and turned out a crew of new men that rowed down Yale and won by over half a minute.
Cornell was barred from the Yale-Columbia Freshman race, and Harvard took their place, starting the series of Freshman races between these three institutions that lasted for a number of years. There was no real reason why Cornell should have been shut out from this race, because no sentiment clustered around the Freshman contest. Harvard had been rowing with Colum bia and Yale with Pennsylvania, and the only conclusion that can be reached is — Cornell was too fast. The Cornell Freshmen are usually older than those of the other colleges, and they undoubtedly have an advantage in their more mature men. Columbia won from the Freshmen of Harvard and Yale, and then Cornell beat Columbia.
Cornell again won the triangular race, and again gave new figures for three miles in a shell, reduc ing their former world's record to 14.271-; Penn sylvania was second and Columbia third.
After this race began some talk about re forming the dead Intercollegiate Rowing Asso ciation with Pennsylvania, Cornell, Columbia, and Bowdoin as members, and giving an annual regatta somewhere on the Hudson ; but it was evidently not time for this movement, and the project held over. But New London had passed out of the rowing world so far as these colleges were concerned. Columbia still continued to row in the Freshman eights with Yale and Harvard, but the University crews of these institutions had no outside races. In fact, rowing was in a bad way ; continual beatings had taken away much of the interest at Harvard, and too much win ning had prevented any improvement at Yale.
Cornell could not find an eight that could make them a hard race, and the foreknowledge of being beaten was killing the sport at Pennsylvania and Columbia. There was a crying need for a stir ring competition that would bring out ideas ; in stead, came bickerings between Cornell and Yale, and a general lack of interest elsewhere. Yale and Cornell kept to their same styles. Penn sylvania had parted with Ward again and were being coached by George W. Woodruff, a former Yale oar, into a way of rowing that bore marks of the Cook stroke. Harvard tried something new each year, and always delayed selecting their crew until so late that they never came to New London well together. The Bancroft stroke was most in favor, but that which defeated the crews was not so much their stroke, though the men were hampered by being all forced into the one mould ; but it was the delay in the selec tion of the crew, and the changes made at times when the eight should have been picked, and taking long rows to perfect their time. Har vard seldom put on their strength effectively, and of course they lost. Yale won every race, starting with 1892, down to 1895, and in the closest race they had eighteen seconds. The Freshman races were closer, though Yale won all of them. Columbia was second from 1892 to 1894, and in 1895 Harvard gained the second place.
With plenty of water to choose from, Cornell and Pennsylvania could not find any place where they cared to row. Columbia concentrated on the Freshman race at New London, and they did not have a University eight in outside competition. In 1892 Penn rowed three miles at Ithaca, and Cornell won by seventeen seconds, and the Cornell Freshmen beat the Columbia Freshmen. In the following year, Cornell and Pennsylvania started on a kind of boomer trip and rowed their race out on Lake Minnetonka, partly to help a town near Minneapolis, and partly because every one liked the journey; there was no earthly reason why the crews should have gone such a distance for a simple affair like a boat race. It was a four mile race, and Cornell won by two lengths. The Cornell Freshmen went over to New London and beat Columbia. The 1894 contest was again four miles, and this time it was brought down to the Delaware River at Torresdale above Philadelphia, in the hope of stimulating boating at Pennsylvania. It was a spirited race, and Cornell won by three lengths. The Cornell-Columbia Freshman races had dropped off, and the first-year men had to race with a club crew at Ithaca.