The Wesleyan men’s and women’s crew teams took to the waters of Lake Quinsigamond last Saturday with promising results. In the 2000-meter sprints, all four men’s boats were very competitive in their respective races, while the women’s squad was markedly more successful than it was last weak, when the Cardinal women rowers delivered a substandard performance against Coast Guard.

Coming off last week’s race on choppy waters, the men’s first varsity boat built an even larger margin of victory in Worcester. The eight-man boat posted a time of 6:16.8, besting the University of Massachusetts by more than four seconds, host Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) by 10 seconds, and traditional rival Middlebury by a comfortable 18-second margin. This marks the third sprint victory for the top men’s boat in three tries, with only the coxswain position changing from race to race. While Grant Nikols ’13 navigated the first boat against Coast Guard, Peter Chu ’14 steered the first unit to victories in its spring training race in Florida as well as at Worcester on Saturday. The continued success of the first boat with both coxswains, as well as the second-place finish of the second varsity boat and the winning performance by the third varsity boat in their respective races, shows great depth and potential for the men’s squad going forward.

The women’s first varsity boat improved from its disappointing 11-second loss to Coast Guard last weekend, finishing second of four boats on Saturday. WPI came away with a win at home at 7:08.1, and Wesleyan finished just over three seconds behind with a time of 7:11.9. The second and third women’s varsity boats also rowed strong races. The second boat’s time of 7:18.7 provided a safe margin of over seven seconds over second place Smith College, while the third varsity boat challenged Smith for the win before finishing three seconds back with a time of 7:40.0.

The Wesleyan crew teams will return to the water next Saturday when they travel to Medford, Mass. for a race hosted by rival Tufts.