The men and women’s crew teams began their spring season with a regatta against Holy Cross and the Coast Guard Academy on Saturday. Both teams performed well, with the men varsity eight making a noble second place showing while the women’s squad struggled to a third place finish. The weather initially appeared to pose a problem, with a milky fog and drizzle present until the opening moments of the first race, when the conditions got considerably better and the races occurred unhindered.
The first event was the men’s varsity eight. Driven by a successful off-season and considerable improvement during their spring training trip to Florida, the squad was chomping at the bit to officially test their strength.
This first competition was also personal in a way. Within the waning days of spring break, the men’s Wesleyan flag, which had been fluttering freely above the boat trailer, disappeared during the night. The event was suspiciously attributed to the 93 member Coast Guard team, who had also been training in Deland, Fla.
The chance for revenge was on the mind of the squad as they lined up for the start of the race next to their clean-shaven and patriotic opponents.
Trouble initially befell the men’s squad as the race started. After technical difficulties in one of the seat-slides during the start the rowers found themselves eight seats behind Holy Cross and six behind Coast Guard.
“If you missed the start, then you didn’t see the race,” said coxswain Dave Wyant ’05. “We fell behind initially, then got refocused and walked back into the other crews – something we haven’t done in a year and a half.”
The men’s varsity eight quickly climbed back into the race, and by the first 1000 meters had caught up with Coast Guard and began slugging it out with the Holy Cross Crew. They could not catch up with Cross to take the win, but finished a strong second.
The team may have lost their flag, but their revenge was much more potent.
The winning time for Holy Cross in the 2-km event was 6:14.4, followed by Wes at 6:20.2 and Coast Guard at 6:21.5.
The women’s varsity eight race followed shortly thereafter. Since the fall season the women’s team has been strengthened by rowers returning from study abroad programs, but still have some injuries nagging them. Therefore the roster for the Varsity 8 was not finalized until a few days before the race. Coast Guard took the win at 7:09.8, with Holy Cross in second 7:14.5 and the Wesleyan women finishing third 7:25.8. The results, however, do not testify to the quality of the race.
“We had a great start and pulled extremely hard,” said Rachel Williams ’05. “This has been the best the boat has felt in a long time. Though we took third it was still an intense and good row, and I look forward to meeting both schools again during New England’s.”
By the time of the men’s second varsity eight competition, the Wesleyan Rowing Machine had gained full momentum and was running on all cylinders. The junior-varsity crew jumped out with a quick lead after the start and never lost the lead.
“After the start we had the Coast Guard crew try to walk back on us, but that didn’t happen,” said coxswain Kim Davies ’07.
The junior-varsity boat had a definitive lead by the first 500 meters, and spent the rest of the race increasing the distance of their lead. The winning time was 6:29.0, with Holy Cross finishing second with a time of 6:33.0 and Coast Guard falling into third at 6:33.7. The crew was charged after the race.
“We had a great race. We’re getting their betting shirts! We were handsome,” said three-seat Karem Alper.
The women’s junior varsity eight and the men’s four (third varsity) both had strong races; the women finished third with a time of (8:01.5) while the men took second in their race (8:02.4). The women’s novice eight was the final race of the day for Wes, and the squad won the race, out sprinting the other two opponents within the last 200 meters. The team’s time was 7 minutes and 24 seconds.
Both teams will be traveling to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. again this Saturday to face teams from WPI, Colby, and Smith.
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