Sports

Fifth place seemed to be the most popular ranking for Wesleyan’s crew team at the New England Championship in Worcester, Mass, last weekend. The women’s varsity eight boat was the only crew to medal, finishing in second place.

Over 1,200 competitors who race at New Englands every May were greeted by sunshine and calm water on Saturday. The championship heats began at 8 a.m. and all of Wesleyan’s boats placed high enough to row in the afternoon finals.

The women’s varsity eight placed first in their heat.

"Our heat was relaxed and calm and we were absolutely working together," said co-captain Jess Sommer ’00. "We went into the finals really confident and excited to be a part of such incredible competition. We knew that it could be anybody’s race and that it would be fast and close."

According to Becca Friedman ’00, who coxed the women’s varsity race, Williams raced ahead of the other five crews from the start.

"We were probably half-way through the boats by the 1000-meter mark," she said. "The race was between us and UConn and Holy Cross. It was really close into the finish, but we started our sprint 10 strokes before UConn and that’s why we beat them."

The varsity eight then finished in second place in the grand final, four seconds behind Williams. It consisted of (stroke to bow): Brooke Miller ’00, Erin Burchfield ’02, Julia Matsudaira ’02, Annika Hawkins ’00, Sonja Koppenwallner ’03, Mary Peacock ’02, Sommer, and Rachael Seavers ’01.

"This year they trained really hard and competed very well and absolutely rose to the occasion," said head coach Beth Emery.

The women’s team has not medaled in the varsity eight event since 1997, when it placed third.

"The athletes worked very hard all year long," Emery said. "It’s tough to win medals at any event. There are a lot of crews that race really hard and well and medals are not easy to come by."

The men’s varsity heavyweight eight placed second behind Trinity College in the first heat.

"We raced our heat against two really tough schools, Trinity and Colby," said Kevin MacDermott ’02. "But we were able to beat Colby and make it into the top level finals. In the final it was by far the most intense race of my life."

The men’s varsity eight placed fifth in an excruciatingly close finish. Trinity led the race by four seconds, and Williams placed second with Boston College and US Coast Guard Academy following with a margin of two-tenths and three-tenths of a second. Wesleyan finished 1.1 seconds after Coast Guard, leaving a1.4 second margin between second and fifth place.

"One-point-four seconds is the narrowest of margins," MacDermott said. "To have that separate four boats was unprecedented. It was neck and neck. We were extremely disappointed to not medal and the defeat was frustrating but it was a competetive race."

The men’s varsity boat consisted of (stroke to bow) Jeremy Duda ’00, MacDermott, Parker Everett ’01, Alex Yellen ’03, John Becker ’03, Oliver Haselgrave ’01, John Poulin ’00, Evan Newell ’02 and coxswain Giulia Cangiano ’01.

"It was our hardest race so far and we look forward to proving ourselves next week," said Duda, captain of the men’s team.

"It was very nice racing," said Phil Carney, head coach of men’s crew. "Three of the four crews that beat us in in the finals for the varsity heavyweight eight will be racing at champions, so we’re getting a chance to race them again."

The men’s varsity four placed second in its heat and fifth in the final.

"Most crews at New England’s place their top four rowers in the fours," Duda said. "There are three novices in our varsity four. [Placing fifth] was an incredible accomplishment on their part."

The men’s varsity four consisted of (stroke to bow): Mike Supple ’03, Graham Rockwell ’02, Aaron Stoertz ’03, Jeff Spivak ’02 and coxswain Laura Raducha-Grace ’03

"Our boat has been improving drastically lately," Supple said. "We were able to step it up even more in the race and prove how well we could compete with a bunch of heavyweight varsity guys."

The men’s second varsity boat also placed second in its heat and finished fifth in the grand finals, three seconds behind the Williams crew.

From stroke to bow Tim Bunting ’02, Justin Gundlach ’03, Mike Gilles ’02, Matthew Hallowell ’02, Lenny Baez ’03, William Avedon ’02, Edward Fisher ’03 and Andrew Rothman ’03 rowed the second varsity eight with coxswain Jessica Rooney ’00.

"All three boats finished fifth in the grand finals," Coach Carney said. "It was a pretty good performance from all the guys."

In the women’s varsity four event, Wesleyan placed fourth in its heat. The top two boats in each of three heats were sent to the grand final while the Wesleyan women’s four made it to the petite final.

"We had the best two races of our season, and we qualified for Champions next weekend," said Peggy Engelhardt ’00.

The four came in third in its final, placing it ninth overall in the event.

"We finished first among schools that don’t stack their fours, meaning putting their four best rowers in the boat," Engelhardt said. "They might stack their boats for speed, but we stack ours for personality and good-looks."

The varsity four was rowed by (from stroke to bow): Maddy Goodkind ’02, Ann Baum ’02, Ruth Corley ’02, Engelhardt and coxswain Roxy Wadia ’03.

"I thought it was very exciting to have all of the crews in the finals," Coach Emery said. "I thought that every crew really raced up another step from their previous racing. Even though the results didn’t reflect in winning medals, it showed that each crew stepped it up another notch for the championship."

The women’s team placed fifth in the second varsity eight event, finishing one second behind UConn and six seconds behind the first place Colby College crew.

"We had really high intensity and the boats were amazingly close," said Joanna Sickler ’02, who stroked the race. "Two seconds faster and we would have come in second place, so we have a week of practices to shave off those seconds and come out on top on at champions next weekend."

The women’s second varsity boat consisted of (from stroke to bow): Sickler, Regan Schubel ’01, Lily Goetz ’01, Diana Kim ’01, Sarah Nolting ’01, Leah Ralph ’02, Charlotte Goodman-Smith ’01, Katie Sanderson ’00, and coxswain Lindsay Watson ’02.

"I think everybody did really well," Sommer said. "To have all the eights go to the finals is a rarity and it shows the depth that we have on our team and how competetive our program is with other schools."

The women’s novice crew raced two eights that both placed first in the morning heats.

The first novice eight then finished fourth in the grand final, four seconds behind Williams.

"We went into the grand finals seated first and we were expecting to do really well," said Leslie Burns ’03, who stroked the race. "We cracked under pressure and it was disappointing. We have so much potential."

It consisted of (from stroke to bow): Burns, Nonie Hamilton ’03, Eliza Allen ’03, Zandy Smith ’03, Liz McColloch ’03, Emily McQuaid ’03, Sarah Massey ’03, Krisa Gardner ’03 and coxswain Annie Shaw ’03.

The second novice eight placed sixth in its final. It was rowed by Katie Thompson ’03, Thea Pratt ’03, Rita Rozenblum ’03, Elena Kuhn ’03, Sarah Higdon-Sudow ’03, Stephanie Jones ’03, Kate Natrass ’03, Katie Glick ’03 and coxswain Amy Tannenbaum ’03.