It was big weekend for the entire men’s crew team, as three boats went undefeated against four other top ten New England crews. Held in Worchester, Mass. by host (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) WPI, Wesleyan’s first boat took gold in the varsity eight race, beating out fourth-ranked WPI, sixth-ranked UMass, and ninth-ranked Colby College. For their efforts, the Cards were awarded the WPI Class of 2003 Cup, their second cup of the spring.

“For Colby and WPI it was their first race of the season, so we knew they’d come out pretty amped up to race,” said Doug Cody ’09. “We had WPI off the start, but they put a really strong charge together in the second half. Our guys did a good job of holding them off for the finish.”

The first boat, made up of Jeremy Brown ’08, Ben Roberts ’09, Charlie Weiss ’09, Matt McLarney ’08, Ross Heinemann ’09, Gael Hagan ’09, Parker Cook ’10 and Cody with coxswain George Bennum ’09, was able to continue the great start to the spring they had last week against some pretty stiff competition. However, even with the two wins, the team has not lost focus.

“WPI was a fast crew,” Weiss said. “The race was hard won, and a reminder of the work that we still have to do.”

As mentioned, not only did the first boat take home first place, but the second and third boats of eight were also victorious. Having a 3-0 weekend against teams of this caliber seems to show the positive direction the entire program is headed.

“It’s great when the first boat is winning, but it’s awesome when the wins go down the line, too,” Cody said. “Everybody’s working their hardest to make this a memorable season.”

For their efforts, the Cardinals remained the number tworanked crew in New England for the second consecutive week. The road does not get easier for the successful squad, however, as week three will find the Cardinals racing against Tufts, Bates, and New Hampshire this weekend.

While careful not to let early success hurt their motivation, the team is certainly excited about the prospects of the rest of the season feeding off of these first couple of wins.

“When we got on the water this spring, there was a lot of energy,” Cody said. “When you get a couple of wins early on in the season, it just adds to that excitement.”