Women's crew captures overall and women's team point trophies at New Englands
WORCESTER, MA – The Williams women’s crew captured
the women’s team points trophy for the third consecutive year
and, in combination with the men’s crew, won the Quinsigamond
Commission Trophy given to the overall men’s and
women’s team points leader, narrowly edging out Trinity
College for the overall title. Under cloudy skies with a
steady misting rain throughout the day, the women exhibited a
tremendous amount of programmatic depth with wins in the 2V, 3V,
and novice events. The women’s 1V took second to
Trinity in an extremely close race that required consultation of
finish line cameras to determine a winner.
In the morning preliminary heats, all four Williams boats posted
the fastest times in their races going into the afternoon grand
finals. The novice women, seeded second going into the
competition, got the racing started early in the morning with a
convincing win in their heat. Their time of 7:11.65 was 17
seconds better than the rest of the field and six seconds faster
than the #1 ranked Simmons novice boat racing in an earlier
heat. Earlier in the year, Williams suffered a loss to the
Simmons crew, losing by less than a second on the same
course.
The 2V boat, seeded first, followed with a seven second open water
victory over Smith in their heat, crossing the line with a time of
7:00.26. Second seeded Trinity, racing in heat two, finished
two and a half seconds slower in 7:02 .86 to set up the afternoon
showdown between the two perennial powers. The 2V defeated
Trinity earlier in the season, but only by a second and a half,
less than half a boat length.
In the final set of morning heats where the top two finishers
advanced to the grand final, the Williams 1V entered the race
ranked second behind Trinity. The Williams boat rowed well in
their morning heat, taking a six second win over the second place
UNH boat in 6:52.90, the fastest time of the morning.
Trinity, racing in an earlier heat, took an easy win over the
second place Holy Cross boat with a time of 6:54.62. In the
third heat Coast Guard and Bates advanced to the grand
final.
The 3V boat took the first win of the day for the Williams women in
the grand finals. Only six schools entered women’s
third varsity boats, rendering preliminary heats unnecessary.
Despite being ranked first in the event, the Williams boat had a
shaky first 1,000 meters where they raced several seats down on the
Holy Cross crew in lane three. As they crossed the
1,000-meter mark the 3V drew even with Holy Cross and then
proceeded to walk through their boat, taking an open water lead
into the final 500 meters. Their final time of 7:14.32 was
good enough for first place and a seven second victory over second
place Holy Cross. Tufts took third, nearly twenty seconds
from the lead.
The Williams novice boat toed the line with Simmons, ready to
avenge their earlier loss, and got out to an early lead with a
considerable margin over the Simmons crew halfway into the
race. Coming into the final 500 meters of the race, the
Williams boat held at least two lengths of open water and cruised
to victory with an extremely competitive time of 7:04.46 that would
have placed them second in the women’s second varsity event
later in the afternoon. Simmons took second in 7:15.06 with
Wellesley College took third. The Trinity women’s
novice boat did not advance to the grand final and took second in
the petite final to finish in 8th place overall.
In the second varsity grand final, Williams faced Trinity for the
second time this season and, as they did before, emerged with a
win. This time they wasted no time getting ahead of the
field, pulling away early and rowing to a commanding victory,
dipping below the seven minute mark, to win in 6:59.44.
Trinity followed in second place with a time of 7;08.05 with a
tight race for third going on behind them. Holy Cross edged
out Smith for the bronze by six-tenths of a second, 6:12.06 to
6:12.56.
The final event of the afternoon, the women’s first varsity
grand final, featured rivals Williams and Trinity, racing against
each other for the first time this season. Trinity entered
the race ranked first, but Williams laid down the faster
preliminary heat, leaving spectators eagerly waiting for the grand
final. The Williams and Trinity 1V boats separated themselves
from the field early and battled for first place for the entire
length of the course, frequently trading leads and moves that
nudged one bow ahead of the other. Coming into the final 250
meters of the race, it became difficult to discern who held the
advantage. Williams and Trinity crossed the line at nearly
the same time leaving the spectators and athletes waiting for
official word from the referee. The final margin between the
boats of .286—less than the length of the bow deck—was
enough to put Trinity ahead and take the win in 7:45.97, with
Williams in 7:46.26. Though a loss to Trinity is always tough
to swallow, the Williams women will have two more chances to take
on the Bantams this season at ECACs, and the NCAA
Championships.
Williams will return to Lake Quinsigamond for the ECAC National
Invitational on May 10 and 11.
