Women’s 1V wins Donahue Cup; 2V, 3V take down Trinity
WORCESTER, MA – The Williams women took three first place
finishes and the Donahue Cup title at Lake Quinsigamond, topping
several strong crews, including Trinity, Smith, Holy Cross, and
Simmons. After initial forecasts promised rain and cold
conditions, the team was prepared for the worst, but was pleasantly
surprised to race under sunny skies and warmer-than-predicted
temperatures. A slight cross tailwind made alignment at the
start challenging and choppy conditions in the second 1,000 meters
tested the Williams crew, but the team performed well for the third
straight weekend to take the Donahue Cup and defeat two Trinity
boats.
The 2V boat got the morning started with an exciting race against
Trinity, Smith, and Mount Holyoke. After a well-executed
start put them in front of the field by a handful of seats, the
Williams boat slowly separated themselves from Mount Holyoke and
Smith with a competitive Trinity crew still in striking
distance. Williams kept a half a length margin for most of
the race, but Trinity made some competitive moves that forced the
2V to respond. “We rowed a tenacious race,”
stroke seat Angela Crudele ’08 commented. “They
sprinted early so we had to go with them and despite our youth, I
think we responded well.” The 2V crossed the line at
6:54, a second and a half ahead of Trinity to take the win.
Following up the success of the 2V, the 3V boat came off the line
with their strongest start of the year, getting out ahead of
Trinity, Smith, Holy Cross and Mount Holyoke. With 500 meters
down, the Williams boat had a length over all their opponents, with
Smith giving chase, but made it a length of open water at the 1,000
meter mark and continued to walk away for the second half of the
race. The pace slowed in the second 1,000 meters with no
boats close to challenge them, but the Williams boat held their
substantial lead and won by 25 seconds, crossing the line in
7:16.3.
The 1V raced in the Donahue Cup event against Simmons, Connecticut
College, and host school WPI and emerged with an 18-second
victory. After a rocky start to their race last weekend, the
1V got off the line with a much cleaner start and took a commanding
lead, which they held to the finish line. “We were on
our own after 500 meters, but we’ll need to find more power
in the end,” remarked coxswain Allison Prevatt
’09. The 1V finished in 6:59 with Simmons College
in 2nd place at 7:17.1. “Regardless, it was an exciting
day for the team and for our rankings,” Prevatt added.
The novice women closed out the racing for the day for the Ephs and
took it out with a slight lead on the Simmons A boat, after
dropping the Connnecticut College and Simmons B boats early in the
race. After racing through the 1,000 meter mark and retaining
their lead, the 1N boat pushed on for the finish, but caught some
choppy water in their last 10 strokes, allowing the Simmons boat to
slip past them and grab the win by a four-tenths of a second
margin. The 1N finished with a time of
7:30.4.
Head coach Justin Moore was pleased with the effort by his athletes
this weekend. With Lake Onota under a layer of ice for the
past several weeks, finding adequate water to train on has been
difficult. “Despite challenges with finding water and
having to drive through three states to get to Buskirk, [NY] to
practice, we made progress as a team this week,” Moore
noted. “The 2V raced with a necessary urgency against
Trinity and we keep seeing glimpses of what this 1V boat has the
potential to be. With a few more weeks of training, I believe
they can progress to that level.” Trinity has held the
top spot in many ranking polls for the last three weeks, including
the CRCA/US Rowing and NERC Coaches Poll. Though the 1V boat
did not race Trinity, the success of the 2V and 3V boats is a
promising indicator for a strong second half of the spring
season.
The women will host Wesleyan and Amherst for the Little Three
Championships at Lake Onota in Pittsfield, MA next weekend.
