The Wesleyan men’s crew team improved to 7-2 on the season after dominating several opponents during its past two weekends of races. The team first beat Coast Guard on the Thames River, and then prevailed over Middlebury, Colby, UMass Amherst, and WPI on Lake Quinsigamond in Shrewsbury, Mass.

Wesleyan swept its three races against Coast Guard on Saturday, March 30, beating the Bears for the eighth straight year. The varsity 8 boat, consisting of Ben Record ’15, Tenzin Masselli ’15, David Hinds ’13, Bryce Hollingsworth ’13, Chris Nanda ’16, Noah Solomon ’14, Trevor Michelson ’13, and Sam Hoefle ’13 with coxswain Grant Nikols ’13, handled its opponents over the 2000-m sprint down the Thames. The boat opened up a lead early and managed to win the sprint by 10.9 seconds, finishing with a time of 5:35.7.

The second and third varsity 8 boats also dominated their respective races—the second boat finishing in 5:42.2, 16 seconds ahead of its Bear opponents, and the third at 5:54.8, besting Coast Guard by 17 seconds.

Last Saturday, April 6, Wesleyan went to a five-team meet againstregional rivals Colby, Middlebury, UMass, and WPI. The varsity 8 managed a victory, completing the 2000-m course across the northern section of Lake Quinsigamond in 6:13.0. The top eight racers were the same as the previous week’s—with the exception of Keegan Dufty ’14 replacing Hinds in the boat. Race hosts WPI and Middlebury College challenged Wesleyan over the final stretch of waterway, but Wesleyan eked out a half-boat-length, two-second victory. WPI and Middlebury finished in that order, 38 hundredths of a second away from each other, with Colby and UMass finishing a distant fourth and fifth.

Once again, the second and third varsity boats won their respective races as well. The second boat finished in 6:17.7, 10 seconds ahead of its next closest opponent, and the third finished in 6:35, 20 seconds ahead of second place. Wesleyan’s freshman squad also won its race that day.

The women’s crew team also won its race on Saturday, March 30 on the Thames—its eighth straight victory to open up the season. Competing on the same course as the men, the women’s A and B squads took first and second, at 6:20.6 and 6:24.5. Coast Guard finished third, 9.6 seconds behind Wesleyan’s B team.

In last weekend’s meet on Lake Quinsigamond, the women’s team, ranked sixth in the nation, stayed undefeated and improved to 9-0, winning the meet against Colby, Middlebury, WPI, and Smith College. The varsity 8 finished the race in 6:49.7. That team, consisting of Emilie Sinkler ’14, Robin Cotter ’13, Remy Johnson ’16, Annie Dade ’16, Emma Koramshahi ’16, Kayla Cloud ’14, Clare Doyle ’14, Avery Mushinski ’15 and coxswain Ari Rudess ’15, finished a boat length ahead of second-place WPI, at 6:51.3.

The second boat also won its race, finishing in 7:19—six seconds ahead of second-place WPI, who made a charge over the final minute of the race but was held off by the Wesleyan women. The third varsity and the freshman teams finished third and second in their respective races.

Both the men and women head to Medford, Mass. next weekend for a race against Tufts, Bates, and Wellesley.