Six days later, Cornell went into the second race, meeting Columbia, rowing in a style that had the elements of nearly every style, and Penn, rowing the same stroke as previously with perhaps a trifle more swing. Cornell won from Columbia, and Pennsylvania swamped, so that a real test of style was impossible. Yale won one Freshman race and Cornell the other. The swamping of Pennsyl vania removed the only "long-slide " eight from the race, and the Columbia style was quite too mixed to admit of classification.
The Harvard-Cornell agreement ended ; Yale and Harvard hied back to New London and ex tended an invitation to Cornell to send both of her eights to the Thames and further to test the newer ideas of rowing, for all three crews kept the same systems. Mr. Lehmann at Harvard had the chance of a year to bring the men up to the stroke, and while he was not at Cambridge during the whole time, he had able substitutes in other English university oars. Mr. Cook spent the win ter and spring in New Haven, and Courtney was, of course, at Cornell. Cornell's victory in the University eights was even more impressive than in the previous year ; for a few lengths Yale pushed ahead, but then Cornell swung out after them, took the lead, and the race was settled. Cornell won by five lengths, Yale was second, and Harvard trailed eight or ten lengths behind Yale. Cornell finished quite fresh, while Yale, and es pecially Harvard, were much distressed.
Through the efforts of Professor Benjamin Ide Wheeler of Cornell, a man who had worked steadily for the advancement of rowing, Dr. Louis L. Seaman of Cornell presented a cup of hand some workmanship for annual competition in uni versity eights, and since no body existed which might hold this trophy, the races between Cornell, Pennsylvania, and Columbia being merely on an agreement, it was decided to form a new Inter collegiate Rowing Association and put the races on a firm basis. Accordingly, the present rowing association formed for the purpose of holding an annual intercollegiate regatta. The incorporating members were the Columbia University Rowing Club, the Athletic Association of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Athletic Association of Cornell University, and the entire management was vested in a Board of Stewards composed of one representative from each of the members ; the first Stewards were Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Cor nell ; Francis S. Bangs, Columbia ; and Thomas Reath, Pennsylvania. The races of the associa tion were opened to the collegiate world, and any college crew, that satisfied the Stewards of their eligibility, might row ; but the policy has been to restrict the actual membership to the three incorporators, and thus keep the ex ecutive from becoming unwieldy. Pennsylvania, because their crew had swamped two years out of three at Poughkeepsie, desired to leave the Hudson, and the opening regatta of the new asso ciation went to the scene of the greatest college races — Lake Saratoga, and the distance reduced to three miles from four. Three miles of a lake is nearly equal in point of exertion to four miles on the tideway. Wisconsin took advantage of the
new open regatta to enter their University eight, which arrived only a couple of days before the races. Cornell brought up the eight from New London that had beaten Yale and Harvard so easily, and which was thought to be the certain winner of the race. Pennsylvania had nearly a new crew ; only one man in the boat had ever been in a University race, and most of the men were in their first year of rowing. The stroke, J. P. Gardiner, a Freshman, had never stroked a crew before. They were rowing the same stroke as in previous years, and Wisconsin had also the long slide, though, under Andrew O'Dea, an Aus tralian professional, their stroke belonged to no distinct class. The race was to be a test of the two systems, that of Cornell and that of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania won ; Wisconsin cut out a ter rific pace for two miles, making the first in five minutes flat ; Columbia was second ; Cornell third, and Pennsylvania last. Then Pennsylva nia started forward, taking Cornell along, and Penn went into the lead on the third mile with Wisconsin still second. The hard rowing had killed Wisconsin, and on the last half-mile, Cor nell passed them and started after Penn ; but Pennsylvania was fresher than any other crew, and as Cornell spurted, so did Gardiner, and increased the lead. Penn won by three or four lengths from Cornell, who led Wisconsin by rather more than a length ; Columbia was last. The time of Pennsylvania — 15.511— is the fastest that an eight has ever gone on three miles of dead water, while Cornell also rowed faster than before, and apparently did not suffer in the least from their race of the previous week at New London. Cornell crews had been rowing two big races for three years without harm, and the men were in excellent condition for this race.
The race demonstrated that the quasi-English style of Cornell was wrong, and, like the Yale style of the same time, was an unhappy combi nation of the two systems that could only result in failure when the crew was pitted against one where the style was logical and a direct applica tion of the basic principles of the stroke. Penn sylvania had developed on the long slide and rowed that stroke entirely. Cornell had adopted a slide a little longer than that of the English, and a swing rather shorter and without that actual power which the true English swing possesses ; or, in other words, they cut down the force-giving elements of each stroke and combined them in one weak effort that did and must have failed. Yale was in a position exactly similar to that of Cornell, and Cook's experiments were likewise faulty. Harvard's rowing under Lehmann, so far as speed is concerned, was a failure ; in the point of interest and real pleasurable exercise there was a vast improvement.
After the season of 1898 the two rowing cliques — the Hudson and the Thames — sepa rated sharply, and from this point there is noth ing in common between the two schools, and they may be treated separately.