BOSTON - Boston University men's crew successfully defended the Bill Cup against Rutgers and Dartmouth Saturday morning on the Charles River. The Terrier men won the cup last season for the first time since 1991.

BU nearly swept the races this afternoon, with wins in the varsity eight, the JV eight, and both freshman eights.

In the varsity race, all four boats were even through the first 1000m. BU gained seats on Rutgers and took over first but was unable to separate from the pack. In the last 300m the BU men made a move to take a 3/4 length lead at the finish.

Holy Cross got off to an exceptionally fast start in the JV eight and held off the Terriers for the first 1700m of the race. BU went into a higher gear at the end of the course to finish with a four-seat lead.

The freshmen boats were dominant in their wins. The first eight had open water by 500m and a 2 3/4 length open water lead at the finish. The second eight stormed out and never looked back. BU had a length open water lead at 500m and four lengths open water at 1000m, defeating Holy Cross by 40 seconds.

RESULTS
Varsity eight (Bill Cup race)
BU 6:09.1; RU 6:11.00; HC 6:14.70; Dart 6:18.8

JV eight
BU 6:16.02; HC 6:18.08; Dart 6:39.52

3V/2V4+
RU 7:16.87; BU 7:19.41

1F eight
BU 6:15.5; HC 6:27.60; RU 6:28.46; Dart 6:32.68

2F eight
BU 6:32.71; HC 7:12.97