Following up on two of the most impressive season finishes in recent history, the nationally sixth-ranked women’s and regionally third-ranked men’s crew teams headed to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Massachusetts for the New England Rowing Championship. Both teams qualified for the Grand Final in their events, and the men’s first varsity eight finished fourth of 14, while the women came in sixth of 17.

In their first heat of the day, the men’s varsity eight took the water against Trinity College, Boston College, the United States Coast Guard Academy, University of Connecticut, Colby College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, with the top three boats moving on to the Grand Final. The Cardinal team had beaten Colby and WPI earlier in the season but had lost to the Trinity Bantams in their final race of the season.

Wesleyan completed the 2000-meter course in a swift 5:54.855, just over two seconds behind the Bantams’ 5:52.542. WPI was the final qualifying team from this heat, finishing seven-tenths of a second behind Wesleyan at 5:55.571.

Williams, University of Rhode Island, and Bates College qualified for the final from the second heat, and the Grand Final lineup was set. Wesleyan had previously rowed against each of the five teams against whom they were rowing in the final round, having beaten URI, Bates, and WPI but falling to Williams and Trinity.

In the final, Wesleyan pledged to leave it all on the water as they stepped into their biggest race of the season. As expected, Trinity and Williams got off to a quick start and competed with each other for first place in the race, with Trinity ultimately edging out Williams 6:02.795 to 6:03.693.

The pair that looked to compete for third was Wesleyan and Bates, but WPI made a strong push that challenged the two NESCAC rivals. Eventually, Bates avenged their regular season loss to the Cardinals, clocking in at 6:09.292, over two seconds ahead of Wesleyan’s 6:11.339. WPI captured fifth place, two seconds behind Wesleyan, and URI brought up the rear, five seconds behind WPI.

The women’s varsity eight were looking to get back to their winning ways in the championship; they started the season by winning ten straight matches but ended it by losing three in a row. They were in the water competing against Bates, Trinity, Simmons College, Tufts University, Bryant College, and Mount Holyoke, with the top two teams advancing.

Bates dominated the opening heat, finishing in 6:49.630. Wesleyan battled for the other qualifying spot against the Tufts team and ultimately bested them by four seconds, 6:57.538 to 7:01.927, the same margin of victory they had over that squad during the regular season.

Williams and Trinity took the top spots in the two other heats, with University of New Hampshire and Wellesley College qualifying for the final as well. Wesleyan had not competed against UNH or Bates this season but had lost to Trinity, Williams, and Wellesley, so they had their work cut out for them in this Grand Final.

Wesleyan was unable to avenge any of their losses and finished sixth in the race of six, coming in at 7:04.46. Trinity, Bates, and Williams made up the top three, as Williams won with a time of  6:41.268.

The men’s second varsity eight took the top spot in their qualifying race and were in the final competing against Trinity, Williams, WPI, URI, and Boston College. The team had lost to Williams by just a quarter-length earlier in the season and had beaten Trinity and WPI.

In the final race, they finished in third place at 6:20.100, 4.1 seconds behind top finisher Williams. They were third of the 11 teams in the competition.

Meanwhile, the women’s second varsity eight was edged out by just two tenths of a second in the qualifying round for the finals, finishing in 6:55.164, and thus ended up competing in the Petite Final. They finished first in this final, at 7:24.715, seventh of the 14 competitors.

The men’s third varsity eight finished first in their qualifying round, but were beaten handily in the finals by Trinity, completing the course in 6:27.381, six seconds behind first place, and good for second of the nine competing squads. The men sent a second varsity four team to compete, as well, who finished sixth of seven at 7:42.86.

The women’s third varsity eight, meanwhile, also missed out on the Grand Final, finishing fourth in the qualifying round but they won the Petite Final with a time of 7:40.087, seventh of the ten teams competing.

Both teams will compete in their final race of the season this weekend on the same Lake Quinsigamond course in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.