This weekend at the Little Three Championship in Lake Onoto in Pittsfield, Mass., the men’s crew team put on an excellent showing against Williams. The women’s team also continued to show heart and determination, performing respectably against the deep and dominant programs of both Williams and Amherst.
In the much-anticipated first varsity eight race of the day, the third-ranked Cardinals went up against the Ephs, who are ranked fourth. The Williams team ended up being a little too much for the Cardinals, winning by a margin of 1.6 seconds, a slightly smaller gap than that which separated the two teams last year.
In the second varsity eight, the men came out on top by 2.7 seconds, winning the “Calhoun Cup” for the second year running. In the final race of the day, the novice eight easily defeated Williams by 17 seconds, winning the McGrath trophy, also for the second year in a row. Though Amherst attended the Little Three regatta, all its races were varsity and novice four events against Williams.
“On the first varsity eight level, we were ready for a battle, and that’s just how it turned out,” said head coach Phil Carney. “Our plans were thrown off a little when they jumped out to an early significant lead and were about a boat-length ahead at the 500-meter mark. Our guys stayed poised though, got into a good racing rhythm, and gave a good chase. Ultimately we had gotten ourselves into a hole that was just a little too deep to dig out of.”
The race was extremely close and indicative of the high level of the two respective programs.
“Had the race been 200 meters longer I think we would have had them, but they took the victory this time,” said co-captain Matt Carey ’07.
The team, now 8-2 at the varsity eight level, is committed to using experience to its advantage as the season reaches its apex. The Cardinals will have two more weeks of hard training before they face the Williams squad again at New Englands.
The women once against faced extremely fierce competition. The Williams squad was able to defeat the Cards’ varsity eight without their primary rowers.
In the second race, the novice eight had a bit of a rough start to begin the race but closed out with good form, falling to the first novice Williams boat by 40 seconds. The varsity four race was the most competitive of the day, with the Cards pulling ahead of all crews after the start sequence but falling behind in the end, finishing 10 seconds behind Williams and five seconds behind Amherst.
“Our coach reminded us on Saturday that our race schedule is one of the toughest in the league and that we only race the crews that come in at the top at New Englands,” said co-captain Kim Strovink ’08. “The fact that we have stuck with these crews shows the strength and character of our team.”
The men and women will have their hands full once a
Leave a Reply