Women’s varsity crew had another strong showing early in the season, winning three races, against Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester Saturday at the Cayuga Inlet.
Following last week’s performance, the first varsity 8 boat improved its No. 3 national ranking to No. 2 in the country, and came out Saturday looking like it was worthy of the ranking.
“It’s cool to know,” junior Amy Gefell, who rows in the first varsity 8, said. “We’re definitely proud that somebody out there thinks we’re good. But we try to not think about it too much, because there’a always room to get better, and we want to push for that No. 1 spot.”
The first varsity 8 finished with a time of 6:38.14, improving on last week’s time and beating out second place finisher, University of Rochester, by more than 15 seconds. Rochester Institute of Technology finished third with a time of 7:13.25.
With the sun coming out the last few days, the temperature and conditions played a factor in the practice during the week leading up to the meet.
“We’ve had the same amount of time on the water all week,” junior Kerin Murphy, who rows in the first varsity 8, said. “Thursday and Friday we had some really good practices, the water was really flat so we got some good strokes in and we were a little bit more relaxed.”
It seemed as though everyone on the team was relaxed and focused, as the second varsity 8 boat cruised to victory, beating out the University of Rochester by more than 16 seconds, with a time of 7:04.1 to 7:20.67.
The third varsity 8 was another winner for the Blue and Gold, almost matched the second varsity 8 boat’s margin of victory, downing the University of Rochester boat 7:12.17 to 7:28.01.
“Today we had a really really good race,” junior Ruthie Goff, who rowed in the third varsity 8 and the fourth varsity 8 boats, said. “We were really happy with the way we raced. We came off the water last weekend, knowing exactly what we wanted to work on, and we did that in practice.”
The women have obviously been putting the time in at practice, as the depth of the team came through to fill for injuries in the varsity boats.
The novice 8 boat was beat out by University of Rochester, 7:34.64 to 7:41.61. While the fourth varsity 8 and the second novice 8 boats were topped by the Rochester Institute of Technology boat, with the fourth varsity 8 losing by slimmest of margins, 7:32.15 to 7:38.46. The second novice 8 boat posted a time of 8:01.34.
As the team begins to focus on next week’s meet, Murphy said that this group of women is always working to get better, week in and week out.
“We never like to use the word settle,” Murphy said. “We’re always working. We respect all of our opponents and never underestimate them. So we go into every race and race our hardest and get the most out of every race, and our ultimate goal is to win.”
Women’s crew returns to competition against Skidmore College and St. Lawrence University at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Cayuga Inlet.
