Men's 1V and 3V crews take second to Trinity, program wins overall points trophy at New Englands
WORCESTER, MA – The Williams men’s crew took silver
medals in the first and third varsity events and the novice men
took the gold on their way to second place in the men’s team
points trophy standings, behind Trinity. In combination with
the women’s team, they also captured the Quinsigamond
Commission Trophy for the best overall men’s and
women’s team performance, edging out Trinity for the
title.
The men’s first varsity boat, seeded second in their race,
took a win in their preliminary heat, finishing a second and a half
up on Wesleyan and three seconds up on Bates. Their time of
6:02.89 was three seconds slower than the first ranked Trinity boat
who won their earlier preliminary heat with a time of
5:59.81. Going into the grand final, Williams lined up
against Trinity, WPI, Wesleyan, Bates and Coast Guard. The
Williams men took it off the line and kept Trinity in contact for
the first half of the race, with Wesleyan and WPI still in the
mix. Trinity pulled away in the second half of the race
leaving Wesleyan, Williams, WPI racing for second place.
Williams narrowly edged Wesleyan out for the silver, finishing in
6:03.60, with Wesleyan taking the bronze with a time of
6:04.20. WPI just missed a trip to the medals dock with a
time of 6:04.88.
The men’s second varsity had a tough morning heat, narrowly
missing a qualifying spot for the grand final. They finished
fifth in their heat in 6:33.36 with U Mass in third taking the
final qualifying spot in 6:30.58 and Boston College fourth in
6:32.62. Trinity easily defeated WPI by 10 seconds to win the
heat in 6:14.15. In the afternoon petite final, the 2V
demonstrated how competitive they are with a tight 1.37 second win
over UNH with a time of 6:25.34 to take seventh place
overall. In the grand final Trinity took an easy win in
6:08.94, joined by Wesleyan and WPI on the medals dock.
The men’s third varsity and novice boats each went straight
to the grand final round with only seven and four boats
respectively in their races. The men’s third varsity
race came down to the wire in a battle for second with
Wesleyan. With 500 meters to go in the race, the Williams men
found themselves in third, with Trinity out in front, but only four
seats down on Wesleyan. With 400 meters to go, they began to
sprint early and got out to a slight lead which they manage to hold
until the finish, defeating Wesleyan for the silver, 6:28.23 to
6:28.73. Trinity won the race in 6:12.04.
The men’s novice eight lined up with Trinity, Coast Guard,
and URI for their only race of the day. The novice men wasted
no time confirming their #1 seeding and moved ahead early to take
Trinity by a length of open water with a speedy time of 6:08.89,
seven seconds faster than second place Trinity (6:16.48).
Their time of 6:08.89 would have just eclipsed the winning time by
the Trinity 2V in the second varsity grand final (6:08.94).
The Williams men will return to Lake Quinsigamond in a week to race
in the ECAC National Invitational on May 10 and 11.
