The Wesleyan men’s and women’s crew teams both lost their final head-to-head matches of the season last week to Route Nine rival Trinity, as the men finished the season 9-4,  and the women finished 10-3.

Both teams knew that in a sprint on the quick Connecticut River, any mistake could spell a loss for their boat. This was the first home race of the spring season for the teams, as the home race the previous week was postponed and moved to Massachusetts.

The members of the men’s first varsity eight, ranked third in New England, took to the water hoping to unload some of their frustrations onto the rival Bantams, who maintain the second rank in the region. The previous week, the Cardinal men lost to Williams despite a solid 6:00.2 finish.

The Wesleyan men looked poised for victory, with their varsity eight consisting of Ben Record ’15, Tenzin Masselli ’15, Keegan Dufty ’14, Bryce Hollingsworth ’13, Chris Nanda ’16, Noah Solomon ’14, Trevor Michelson ’13, Sam Hoefle ’13, and coxswain Grant Nikols ’13. Although the Cards had a strong crew in the water, Trinity outrowed them by two seconds, just three seats ahead of Wesleyan in this tight battle. Trinity finished the race in 5:28.6 to Wesleyan’s 5:30.6.

Trinity was awarded the Norm Graf Cup for its victory. The Cup is named after Wesleyan Associate Coach Norm Graf, who spent 20 years as Trinity’s head coach before coming to Wesleyan as a coach in 1995; he has worked part time with the team since then. He has had an impressive coaching career after graduating from Rutgers in 1951, where he rowed for four years. Coach Graf posted a .850 win percentage while coaching Trinity.

The men’s second varsity eight had an all-around impressive showing, besting the Trinity second team by a full four seconds, and, for the second week in a row, finishing within two seconds of its first varsity counterpart.

On the women’s side, the first varsity eight squads were fighting for the Trudy Emerson Cup, given annually to the winner of this race and named in honor of Hall-of-Fame-rower Fred Emerson’s wife, Trudy, for significant contributions to women’s collegiate rowing in Connecticut.

The team took the water looking to halt its two-game losing streak, which came after winning its first 10 races of the season. However, the Cards were unable to stop the skid, posting a time of 6:11.1, 5.1 seconds behind the Bantams. This is a strong time, though, and the Cardinals look to improve upon that as they enter the postseason. Trinity finished undefeated in dual races this year, winning all four in which they competed.

The women’s second varsity eight also finished behind Trinity, 6.1 seconds shy of the winners at 6:17.5. The third varsity eight earned a victory after Trinity’s boat missed a buoy—the lone victory of the day for the Wesleyan women.

Both teams will be gearing up this week for their Saturday, May 4 races at the New England Rowing Championships on the familiar Lake Quinsigamond.