The men’s crew team took first place last weekend in the first varsity-eight competition, on a chilly day in Worcester, Mass., defeating the Coast Guard Academy and Holy Cross College. Wesleyan took the race by a 4.2-second margin, good for its second consecutive Sullivan Cup, awarded to the winning crew.

“Holy Cross is definitely one of the top crews that we face in the dual race season,” said Doug Cody ’09. “To have a strong first race says a lot about the work the team put in over the winter and in the past month on the water.”

With only three returnees from last year’s varsity boat, some may not have expected such great results. However, the University proved that this year’s first boat is equal to the task. The members of the varsity eight boat for this race were coxswain George Bennum ’09 and Jeremy Brown ’08, Parker Cook ’10, Gael Hagan ’09, Ross Heinemann ’09, Matt McLarney ’08, Ben Roberts ’09, Charlie Weiss ’09 and Cody.

“With this year’s line up so different from last year’s, it was nice to get a key win early on to set the tone for the rest of the season,” Cody said.

In the other race of the day, the Cardinals’ second varsity eight boat finished in third place. With such great early-season success, Wesleyan has been ranked as the second-best crew in New England among 18 in the latest regional poll. However, the team seems to take the rankings in stride.

“If anything, being number two is just another motivation tool,” Cody said. “It shows we are in a good spot, but that there’s still a lot of work to be done for us to be the best crew we can be.”

The next race promises to be a difficult one. On Saturday, April 5, the Cards will take on fifth-ranked Worcester Polytechnic Institute and sixth-ranked University of Massachusetts, along with ninth-ranked Colby College. Four top teams racing again in Worchester, Mass., should be a good test for Wesleyan, as it looks to build upon the success of the past two weekends and validate its high rank. It comes as added incentive to the crew to know that it will get other teams’ best shots.

“[Being ranked second] puts a bit of a bulls-eye on us, so we’ll be seeing a lot of really strong competitors in the upcoming weeks,” Cody said.

The time for this weekend’s race in Worcester is TBA.