This weekend in Malden, Mass. the Cardinals continued to row with success. The men came up with strong victories against both Tufts and the University of New Hampshire to improve to 8-1 at the varsity eight level this season. The women received victories from their veterans, while their novices continued to pick up valuable experience.

In the first race of the day, Wesleyan’s first eight bested UNH by four seconds, while Tufts came in third with a margin of 13 seconds. In the next race of the day, the Cardinals sent in their second varsity eight, which proved to be victorious against both the Tufts and Bates novice squads. In the final race of the day, the third varsity eight lost by a mere 2.6 seconds to UNH and 12 seconds to Tufts.

The Cardinals demonstrated a level of consistency with victories over the talented squads of Tufts and UNH this weekend, and they are poised to roll into the big match up this weekend with the Little Three competition against Amherst and Williams. Williams, ranked fourth in New England right behind Wesleyan, should prove to be a test to the rolling Cardinals.

Last year Wesleyan and Williams’ first varsity boats battled for the Little Three title on Lake Onoto. Williams came in a mere 2.5 seconds ahead of the Cards. Although the Cardinals were successful the rest of the day, the loss against Williams in the heavyweight competition stuck in their throats.

“We know they’re pretty proud of last year’s result,” said co-captain Matt Carey ’06. “We know they’re fired up for it, and we know they want to be third in New England.”

The Lady Cardinals faced very beatable squads and performed very respectably. The veteran varsity four defeated Tufts by a powerful 27.6-second margin in a series of races that involved Wesleyan, Tufts, Bates and Washington College. The four included Kim Strovink ’08, Deirdre Salsich ’07, Mara Baldwin ’06 and Meng Liu ’07, teamed with coxswain Dana Wollman ’06 for the win. Novice squads rowed the other two races of the day as the novice eights bested Tufts by almost 10 seconds, but lost to Bates by a gap of 27 seconds.

The women will join the men in Pittsfield, Mass. on Saturday, April 22 in the annual Little Three regatta.