The women’s crew hosted St. Lawrence University and Skidmore College yesterday on Cayuga Inlet, winning four of five races in its last home regatta of the season.
After winning three of four races in last weekend’s regatta against the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology, the Blue and Gold came into yesterday’s contest optimistic and improved as they look toward the NCAA Championships.
Sophomore Stephanie Zang, who rows in the second varsity 8, said the crew spent its practice time this past week working on creating a complete, successful race.
“Over the week we worked on swinging and catching together, as well as starts and sprints at the end,” Zang said.
The largest margin of victory for the Blue and Gold came from the crew’s first varsity 4 boat, which finished over forty seconds ahead of rival Skidmore. The Bombers pulled a time of 8:12.01 to Skidmore’s 8:55.02. The varsity 4 ‘B’ boat posted a time of 8:26.13, also coming in far ahead of Skidmore and its boat’s time of 8:54.38.
The Bombers’ second varsity 8 also emerged victorious, finishing seven seconds ahead of second-place St. Lawrence by posting a time of 7:23.02. Wrapping up the wins for the Bombers was the novice 4 ‘A’ boat, which completed its race at a time of 8:28.2, fifteen seconds before St. Lawrence crossed the finish line. The first varsity 8 boat posted the crew’s only loss of the day, ending its race with a time of 7:04.6 and coming in second place to St. Lawrence by a margin of less than three seconds.
While the varsity 8 was unable to come away with the win, head coach Becky Robinson said the team is proud of the result but ready to make improvements.
“That was the fastest they’ve gone all year, so we felt pretty good about it,” Robinson said. “We’d like to be able to see them start to move and then push through versus starting to move and trying to battle back.”
To accomplish this, junior Madison Vander Hill, who rows in the first varsity 8, said the crew is going to focus on starting and finishing each race strong.
“Going into next week, we’re going to work on making the beginning and end of the races a lot faster and more efficient,” she said. “We worked on it a lot last week, but this week is just about making it even better.”
As the team begins to focus on next week’s regatta and the rest of the season on the road, Robinson said they’re leaving Cayuga Inlet with a strong foundation.
“We race at home and get a chance to establish ourselves and our race plan,” Robinson said. “Now we step it up and go into four and five boat races, which is getting us ready for what we’re going to see at the championships.”
The women’s crew returns to action at 8 a.m. Saturday against Connecticut College, Colby College and The College of the Holy Cross on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Massachusetts.
