Men’s and women’s crew capped off their fall season with promising results this past Saturday at the Head of the Fish Regatta in Saratoga, N.Y. Both teams sent out their full squads with four boats apiece, demonstrating months of improved rowing across the board.

The first varsity boat for the men’s crew continued its dominant performance this fall by placing third in the Men’s Collegiate Eight race with a time of 11:20.27 over the two-mile course. The Cardinal men overcame wind and choppy waters to beat out traditional adversaries Williams and Middlebury, who finished in fourth and seventh place, respectively. With this most recent success, the top eight-man boat has finished in the top-three of all four headraces this fall, putting the crew in excellent position heading into the winter.

“We’re right in the front pack,” said Men’s Crew Head Coach Phil Carney. “There’s probably about four or five crews that are all within striking distance to be the top crews this year, and we’re right in that group, one of those crews that really has a chance to do well this spring.”

Another bright spot for the men heading forward is the great depth they’ve developed this fall. A mix of experienced upperclassmen and a strong freshman class has resulted in the second varsity boat improving by leaps and bounds this fall. While it had finished behind the first boat by minutes earlier in the season, the second boat won its division race on Saturday and finished just eleven seconds shy of the first boat.

The Cardinal women continued the progress they have been making all season, fending off the elements as the first varsity boat rowed to a respectable twelfth place finish with a time of 14:09.68. While the women found themselves trailing rival Williams, who won the Women’s Collegiate Eight division, the crew has been improving from a technical standpoint throughout the fall. With this improved technique, the pervading sentiment for the team is that adding on the winter’s strength and conditioning training will align the women to compete at a higher level when races resume in the spring.

“We’re definitely looking forward to the spring,” said Christina Ermilio ’13, who rowed in the women’s first boat. “We’re going to be in the weight room and erging a lot. We all really need to work on our strength, so we’re going to work out really hard, and then hopefully we’ll be all set to be competitive in the spring to go as far as we can.”

As both teams look back on a promising fall season, the Wesleyan rowers will head inside to the Freeman weight machines and ergometers with high aspirations for spring success.

“We all just have to spend a lot of time on the rowing machines,” said Carney. “We have to spend a lot of time in the weight room getting bigger and stronger, increasing strength and fitness, just doing a better job and working harder than our opponents are. This has been a great start, but the bulk of the work is still in front of us at this point.”