Sports

By Allison Rovner 
Editor in Chief

Due to a stellar rowing performance during the last academic year, women’screw participated in the National Collegiate Women’s Rowing Championshipson May 26-28 in Camden, New Jersey.

According to Head Coach Beth Emery, the crew team became the first womensports team at the University to make it to any type of NCAA tournament.

"It was an incredible opportunity to represent Wesleyan as the firstwomen’s sports team to attend an NCAA championship," said Lindsay Watson’02, the boat’s coxswain.

Of the 19 teams that competed in the tournament, only four spots wereallotted to Division II and Division III rowers.

The Cardinals earned their berth in the Championship because of strongperformances in the New England Championship and the Champions Tournament.The team finished second behind Williams in both of these tournaments.

The other three Division II or III schools to compete in the NCAA tournamentwere University of California-Davis, Williams College and Williams SmithCollege.

The Cardinals competed in their first race on Friday morning. Therewere three heats in the Varsity Eight. The Cardinals rowed in the firstheat with six other boats. 

The boat from stroke to bow consisted of Jessica Sommer ’00, Erin Burchfield’02, Julia Matsudaira ’02, Annika Hawkins ’00, Sonja Koppenwallner, MaryPeacock ’02, Lily Goetz ’01 and Rachael Seevers ’01. The coxswain was Watson.

The team finished last in their heat. In the afternoon they competedin a repechage, or a second-chance race. This race was for the teams thatdid not qualify for the semi-finals from the first race.

Saturday morning the Cardinals competed in a race to determine theiroverall position in the tournament. The team ended up finishing last inthe tournament, behind William Smith, which they had beaten in the regularseason.

Emery said the Cardinals’ last-place finish was due to a combinationof factors. She cited the absence of two rowers because of graduation activitiesas one factor. Also, she said the rowers might have been overburdened witha long rowing season and tired from having just finished finals.

Team members said they were not very disappointed about their last placefinish because they were competing against the best rowers in the nation.Brown University finished first in the Championship, while University ofWashington finished second. 

Watson said some schools had rowers who were on the US National Team.

"It’s an honor to be one of the four Division III programs that wouldbe selected to participate in a national championship of this caliber,"Emery said. "Despite not being able to finish as well as we might liketo in terms of our overall standing, our experience garnered from beingpart of the best rowing in the U.S."

"It was inspiring," said Goetz, a co-captain. "It made me want to traineven harder."

Individual team members received honors at the tournament. Brooke Miller’00, Koppenwallner and Rebeccah Friedman ’00 were named All-American bythe Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association. Friedman, Hawkins, Matsudairaand Miller were named National Scholar Athletes.

The rowers are working hard to maintain the success that granted theman invitation to the NCAA Championships. Practice for the fall season hasalready begun.

"I think we are going to be really strong," Goetz said. "The noviceswho moved up from last year are really looking good."

According to Emery, there are only three returning rowers in the varsityboat. She said developing team dynamics will be a primary goal.

"While the women’s rowing program has been very successful on a yearto year basis, it’s not because of success in previous years," Emery said.It’s the hard work we do each year to make it successful."