On Saturday, May 3, the men’s and women’s crew teams traveled to Worcester, Mass. for the New England Rowing Championships, where they competed against teams from across the region. After some hard racing, the Cardinals returned with two medals and the accomplishment of having every eight reach its respective Grand Finals race after all boats advanced from their initial heats.

The Cardinal women’s First Varsity (1V) finished its Grand Finals race in sixth place out of 16, with a time of 7:15.47. The 3V came in fifth of 10 at a time of 7:44.88. The Novice Eight finished fourth of 12 in 7:34.74, just a few seconds behind Mount Holyoke’s third-place performance.

The men’s 1V came in fifth of 15 in its Grand Finals race, just two seconds behind a top-two finish at a time of 6:13.74. The 3V finished fourth of six in 6:44.23, ahead of Williams and UMass Amherst.

Most notably, the two Wesleyan medals were won by the men’s and women’s 2V boats, as they continued their highly competitive streak that was highlighted in last week’s wins when the men beat Trinity and the women broke Williams’ 14-year streak over Wesleyan. The Cardinal men finished in third place out of 12 with a time of 6:22.79, just a quarter of a second behind WPI’s second-place performance in the Grand Finals. Although Williams’ 2V came in first, Wesleyan left the race with a medal and faster times than those of rivals Bates and Trinity in a close, highly competitive race.

The women’s 2V also came in third place out of 12 with a finish time of 7:19.619. Bates and Trinity bested Wesleyan with the Bobcats coming in first and the Bantams in second. However, the Cardinals comfortably kept Williams, Wellesley, and Middlebury out of the top-three finishers. Emma Halter ’17 of the 2V team reflected on the tight race.

“The Grand Finals were intense,” Halter said. “We had two crews that were within four seconds of our [first heat] time. So we knew we were going to have to fight.”

On top of competing with other boats, the 2V faced a different, unpredictable problem in that race.

“About 20 strokes in, we lost our cox box,” Halter said. “Which means half the boat couldn’t hear anything our coxswain was saying. It lost power. So it was sort of like rowing blind. We all really had to tune into each other and build off of each other’s power.”

Despite this setback, the boat kept it together and finished strong.

“One thing about racing with so many other crews is there are people around you the whole time,” Halter said. “You can see multiple boats behind you; you’re watching your competition. You can hear the people in front of you because you can hear their coxswain. Just knowing that everyone around you is working really hard and that the only thing you can do is row your hardest and hope that you care more about this race than the girl in the boat next to you.”

Hannah Brigham ’17 recalled women’s Head Coach Patrick Tynan’s inspiring words before the Grand Finals race that reflected this competitive spirit.

“Right before we went out on the water, he said something like, ‘You guys have a shot at a medal. I wouldn’t tell you this if you didn’t actually have a shot. It would be the first time in a long time,’” Brigham said.

After a great race, Brigham recalled her favorite part of the weekend as not winning the medal itself, but rather the reaction of one of her teammates to a medal-winning performance.

“The best moment this weekend was when we finished the race,” Brigham said. “I turned around, and the girl behind me, Lucy [Finn ’14], was crying. She was so happy. For most girls, this race was different. It was big. It was something that hadn’t happened in a while. For her, as a senior that was the best feeling, seeing her reaction.”

Brigham also spoke about an interaction she had with one of the Bates 2V winners, to whom she had to give her “betting tee,” which are the T-shirts every rower brings to a regatta to give to whichever boat wins its race. Though NESCAC rivals, the two rowers celebrated both of their victories over a common, greater foe: Williams.

“I was giving my shirt to the Bates girl,” Brigham recalled. “She was like ‘Yeah, I was just so excited to see that Williams wasn’t on the podium.’ I said, ‘You have so many shirts, what are you going to do with all [of them]?’ And she [replied], ‘The only one I really care about is this one right here, the purple one.’”

Indeed, the Cardinal women’s 2V out-raced Williams for a second time this season, having beaten them last week on Williams’ home course in western Massachusetts.

In addition to the 2V’s laudable success, the entire team celebrated a great accomplishment this weekend. Even though some boats were hoping for medals, the team as a whole showed its grit and competitiveness.

“One of the goals at the beginning of the year that coaches and captains made was to get all of our boats into the Grand Finals,” Halter said. “So the fact that not only were our first two boats in there, but [also] the third boat and the novice boat—in fact, all the Wesleyan boats, all three men’s boats as well—just proves how hard we’ve worked this year. We’ve done more lifts than in the past; we’ve done more erg work than in the past.”

Brigham echoed this sentiment.

“People have said that it feels different,” she said. “Everyone shows up to every lift, to every practice.”