Despite valiant efforts, the women’s crew team fell short this weekend in their races against Trinity College, Connecticut College and Clark University.
Throughout the races, the team was forced to make adjustments to compensate for the loss of co-captain Deirdre Salsich ’07, who was out with a back injury which will force Salsich to miss the remainder of the season.
The varsity eight boat, rowed by Beth Ogata ’09, Linnea Damer ’10, Elaine Lauriat ’09, Sam Schilit ’10, Eve Mayberger ’09, Radoslava Petrova ’07, Katie Boyce-Jacino ’10, and cox Jinny Jang ’08, finished the two-thousand meter Lake Quinsigamond course in 8:10.00, 21.7 seconds behind third-place Clark University, 33.7 seconds behind second-place Connecticut College, and 56.5 seconds behind first-place Trinity College.
“We had a challenging race. We didn’t get off the line as fast as some of the other crews do at the start and so we started out behind, but we took some really good strokes together,” Mayberger said.
The Varsity four boat, rowed by Ogata, Damer, Mayberger, Lauriat, and cox Amy Nebenhaus ’07, raced Trinity College, Connecticut College, Bowdoin College and Clark University. They finished the race in 8:37.4, good for fourth place behind Trinity, Conn. College and Bowdoin, and 38.6 seconds ahead of Clark.
“It was a better race [than the Varsity eight race],” Mayberger said. “That boat was interesting because we had just practiced two or three days with that line up. For the changes we were forced to make, it was a pretty good race for us.”
Next up for the Cardinals is next weekend’s New England Championships in Worchester, MA.
“At New Englands, our biggest competition will be Simmons, Connecticut College, Amherst, Bowdoin and Middlebury,” Salsich said. “They are all going very fast this spring, and the heats should be very interesting. If we place in the top two in our heat, we will go on to the grand final. I am confident we can make it to the Grand Final in the Varsity four event. The New England [Championship] is always a really exciting regatta.”
“We’re in a challenging division, but we’ve come a long way,” Mayberger said.
This year the team will be competing in the varsity four and junior varsity four races.
At last year’s championships, the varsity four won first place in the Petite Final, defeating Bowdoin, Holy Cross, Trinity, Roger Williams and Tufts. In the same event, the novice eight team finished last in the Grand Final, although only 35.1 seconds behind first-place Williams.
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