The men’s and women’s crew teams continued their winning ways over the weekend on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. The Wesleyan women dominated Smith, Colby and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) to improve to 7-1, while the men zoomed past Colby and University of Massachusetts (UMass) but finished 0.3 seconds behind WPI.

The Cardinal women, ranked sixth in Division III, finished the 2,000-meter course in 7:15.8, well ahead of Smith (7:19.4) and a marked improvement on the 2008 race, when Smith finished 4.3 seconds ahead of the Cardinals. Wesleyan had substantial time margins over Colby (7:37.4) and WPI (7:42.6). The Cardinals’ varsity eight boat included Elaine Lauriat ’09, Claire Tradewell ’11, Catie Steidl ’11, Emilie Kimball ’11, Becca Schofield ’11, Heather McCarrick ’12, Sofia Warner ’09, Beth Ogata ’09 and coxswain Sami Pop ’11.

Wesleyan’s second varsity eight finished in 7:58.8, well behind Smith’s “A” boat (7:44.9) but solidly ahead of the Smith “B” (8:01.4) and Colby (8:01.8). Wesleyan’s novice eight finished in 8:06.7, behind WPI (7:58.6) and Smith (8:02.5) but again ahead of Colby (8:18.3). The Cardinals’ second novice eight clocked in at 8:38.8, 4.2 seconds behind Smith’s “A” boat (8:34.6) but ahead of its “B” (8:41.9).

The men’s varsity heavyweight eight of Ross Heinemann ’09, Gael Hagan ‘09, Charlie Weiss ’09, Elliott Skopin ’11, Terrence Word ’11, Gilder Keeler ’11, Parker Cook ’10, Ben Roberts ’09 and coxswain Jenny Moyer ’11 covered the course in 6:15.9, just behind WPI (6:15.6) but well ahead of Colby (6:41.4) and UMass (6:44.0). Wesleyan’s second varsity heavyweight eight was again edged out by WPI; the Cardinals had a time of 6:41.7, just behind the Engineers (6:40.0) but almost 40 seconds ahead of Colby (7:21.0). Wesleyan’s third varsity eight covered the course in 7:16.0, behind the WPI “A” (6:58.5) and “B” (7:03.5) boats.

Next up for Wesleyan is its annual race against Tufts, Bates and the University of New Hampshire in Malden, Mass. next Saturday.