The men’s and women’s crew teams continued to make strides in their respective fall seasons with promising finishes this past Saturday at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. The men’s team delivered yet another display of its fall dominance, while the women’s squad showed more of its recent flashes of potential and improvement.

The men’s crew sent only a single four-man boat to the Charles, but the group—Elliot Skopin ’11, Terrence Word ’11, Trevor Michelson ’13, Spencer Hattendorf ’12, and coxswain Peter Chu ’14—represented the Cardinal men admirably. The four-boat finished a formidable second in the Collegiate Fours Men division with a time of 17:41.27, besting thirty-nine other four-boats and trailing Worcester Polytechnic Institute by a mere seven seconds. The strong performance at the Charles comes on the heels of first and third place finishes by the top eight-boat in its two fall headraces, giving men’s crew coach Phil Carney an optimistic outlook as winter training looms on the horizon.

“We feel like we have a lot of depth, a lot of enthusiasm,” said Carney. “We have a lot of guys who are very excited and working very hard. They’re doing more than just showing up and getting the job done.”

The women’s crew team sent only one boat to the regatta as well, but the full team was able to draw confidence from its improved performance. After finishing twenty-fourth in the Collegiate Eights Women division at the Charles last fall, the Cardinal women rowed to a seventeenth place finish this year, beating fourteen other boats in the process. Although Wesleyan still finished behind NESCAC rivals Williams and Bates, who placed first and third in the division, respectively, the progress of the women’s team bodes well.

“It was a big improvement based on last year and we’re right in the thick of things looking forward to the springtime,” said women’s crew coach Patrick Tynan. “All in all I was pretty pleased with that.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams will finish off their fall seasons at the Head of the Fish Regatta at Saratoga, NY, after which each team will begin winter training as they prepare for the spring season. Both teams relish the opportunity to devote themselves to improving their strength and conditioning.

“The guys who are working hardest are the guys who are rising to the top,” said Carney. “The four guys who were in that boat this weekend have all done a fantastic job. Bryce Hollingsworth ’13 is right on their heels, Gilder Keeler ’11 is right there, and then there’s probably eight or ten other guys who could potentially get into the first boat. It’s really going to be pretty exciting to sort it out this winter.”

“What I’m seeing is a great effort from the team overall, not just the first boat,” said Tynan. “It’s a pretty positive outlook, I feel like we have some momentum right now, and we’re ready to get off the water and buckle down indoors for a few months.”