New England Rowing Championships Bring About One Medal-Winning Effort for Cardinals
With three entries in the New England Rowing Association Championships on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. Sat., May 2, the Cardinals returned with some solid performances and some silver medals.
Wesleyan's second novice eight came in second of five crews in its race, beating Simmons by two seconds to claim the silver. The novice eight placed third in its heat of five and went on for eight place overall among 13 boats.
In the varsity eight event, Wesleyan placed seventh of 14 crews as four of the six boats in the grand final were from colleges that defeated Wesleyan during its solid 11-5 dual-race season. In addition to Wiliams, Trinity, Bates and Holy Cross, New Hampshire came in highly regarded and also made the grand final. A quirk in the seeding gave Smith, which Wesleyan had beaten by about a boat-length during their dual race a month earlier, a better avenue to the grand final and thus, Wesleyan was third in its heat and destined for the petite final. The Cardinals won that race and in a time more than nine second faster than Smith while competing within moments of each other. Regardless, Wesleyan finished in the top half of the field and enjoyed a great season of racing in spring, 2009.
Following the season, the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) announced its honors and six Cardinal rowers received recognition. Tops among them was team tri-captain Elaine Lauriat '09 (photo insert upper right) as she was named a second-team Division III All-American. Lauriat also was one of the six Wesleyan rowers to earn Scholar All-America laurels. She was joined by fellow tri-captains Beth Ogata '09 and Sophia Warner '09 as well as Becca Schofield '11, Catie Steidl '11 and Claire Tradewell '11.
