The men’s crew team, coming off defeats in its last two races, will look to rebound this weekend at the New England Regatta in Worchester, Mass. The team followed a disappointing loss to Williams two weekends ago with another setback last weekend against the Trinity College Bantams. Now standing at 7-2 on the spring, the squad is looking to regain their early season form.

“We’ve taken some big hits which have resulted in disappointing losses in the last two weeks,” said Gael Hagen ’09. “But the boat has really come together and rallied in the last week of practice. I believe that we have the potential to give our best performance this weekend at New Englands.”

Last weekend, the team traveled to Worchester in hopes of righting the ship after the Williams defeat the week before. However, the Cards continued to struggle, as Trinity was able to burst ahead of Wesleyan from the opening whistle. In the x=varsity eight race, the Wesleyan boat of Doug Cody ’09, Parker Cook ’10, Gael Hagan ’09, Ross Heinemann ’09, Matt McLarney ’09, Charles Weiss ’09, Ben Roberts ’09, and Jeremy Brown ’08 with coxswain George Bennum ’09 fell by 12 seconds to the Bantams on the 2000m-Lake Quinsigamond course. The other three boats competing for Wesleyan also fell, making it a very disappointing weekend; the second boat fell by five seconds, the third by 22 seconds, and the fourth by 40 seconds.

The squad, which was ranked as high as second in the region earlier in the season, had run its record to an impressive 7-0 with wins over quality opponents such as Tufts, New Hampshire, and WPI. They have since stumbled to 7-2 with the recent defeats to Williams and Trinity. However, the team has remained upbeat, regrouping and rededicating themselves for this weekend’s New England Regatta. With a good showing, they hope to prove to themselves that their early season dominance was no fluke.

“This [upcoming weekend’s] race isn’t going to be so much about trying to beat other crews as much as it is proving to ourselves just how fast this boat can be,” Hagan said. “If we accomplish that, I am confident we will get results that we can be proud of.”

The team will wrap up its season in two weeks at the ECAC Invitational, also held in Worchester, Mass.