The Wesleyan crew teams took to the waters of Lake Quinsigamond for their second competition of the season on Sunday. Due to the harsh conditions, only the first and second varsity eight boats participated for the Cardinals, and both the men’s and women’s squads claimed victory.
On the women’s side, the first team appeared undaunted despite the strong headwinds and choppy water, as they comfortably defeated Vassar by a margin of 13 seconds, the equivalent of two boat lengths. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Wellesley finished even farther behind Wesleyan, by 22 and 36-second margins respectively. Bouncing back from last week, the Cardinals are now 3-2 in the young season. The second varsity eight boats also placed first, defeating Wellesley by a 35-second margin.
“They almost cancelled the race due to the conditions, but we had already warmed up so we had to go out there,” said Deirdre Salsich ’07. “There were massive whitecaps, but we were confident that we would race best out of the four crews, since we had been on the water training since spring break.”
Though they exited the gate slowly, Wesleyan caught Vassar and WPI by the 500-meter mark, in the 2,000-meter race. Through the next 1,000 meters, the Cardinals gradually opened a lead on Vassar and WPI, before blowing out both teams in the final 500 meters with the help of impeccable steering from Amy Nebenhaus ’07.
“We couldn’t believe how well we had done,” Salsich said. “I looked back at Rachel [Williams ’05] and Bonnie [Losbaugh ’05] in the bow pair, and all I could think was that the seniors were going to graduate with some really great wins after three tough years. We’ve already matched our win total from last spring and we’re just getting warmed up.”
Next up for the women is Saturday’s meet in Medford, MA.
The men also dominated the competition Sunday, improving to 3-2 as the first varsity eight squad placed first by a 13-second margin over the University of Rhode Island. WPI and UConn were even further off the pace as the Huskies finished over a minute behind the Cardinals. The second varsity eight squad also placed first for Wesleyan, easily defeating WPI by over thirty seconds.
“I’ve never rowed in as harsh conditions, but we’ve never won a race by such a large margin either,” said Matt Carey ’07. “Some of the races took close to two minutes longer to complete compared to a race in good conditions on decent water.”
The men’s team is yet to face a real challenge this season, but the next few weekends should show how good the Red and Black truly are. Next weekend the team will travel to Malden, Massachusetts to duel with Bates, Tufts, and New Hampshire.
“All the hype surrounding the immediate results or rankings is just worthless,” Carey said. “This crew has the focus and natural talent to do some real damage late in the season. If we stay strong through this period and keep improving we will end up on the medal docks at Open New England’s.”
The outlook for both the men and women is positive, as each team is improving and has a plethora of young talent.
“Every athlete in each boat contributes to the speed of the boat,” said women’s head coach Beth Emery. “Our goals for the season are to be in the top six at the New England Rowing Championships, to better our record from the last two seasons, and bring the varsity eight to a winning regular season record. We race the very best NCAA Division III rowing teams each weekend of the regular season. We have a great schedule and should have a great season.”
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