On Saturday, March 16, the crew teams kicked off their spring 2013 campaign in Winter Park, Fla. at the Rollins Invitational. After a long winter of training, the squads were ready to test out their speed against fresh competition, which included Rollins College, Army, University of Florida, and Emory University.

The women’s team brought some Northeast thunder to the Sunshine State, as the varsity team took first place with a time of 6:47.3, a full six seconds faster than the next boat. The second varsity boat also won its event, overtaking Florida to win with a nine-second margin, while the third boat trailed Florida by 14.4 seconds. On the men’s side, the varsity squad took third with a time of 6:05, which was seven seconds behind first place finisher Florida. Wesleyan’s second boat won its heat with a time of 6:12.5, and the second varsity “b” boat took third with a time of 6:35.2. The crew team will race for the second time this spring on March 30, when it travels to U.S. Coast Guard Academy.