Women's varsity crew records fastest time in Day 1 of ECAC Championships
WORCESTER, MA – The Williams women’s varsity crew
recorded the fastest time of all varsity boats in their first day
at the ECAC National Invitational. Wind made for choppy
conditions, but the Ephs used the strong tailwind to their
advantage and sped down the 2,000 meter course to victory.
Williams is seeded second in the varsity eight event, behind
Trinity College, who slipped by Williams in the final 250 meters of
last week’s grand final of the New England Rowing
Championships to claim the gold medal by 0.286
seconds.
The afternoon racing featured four heats of women’s varsity
eights with the top three from each heat advancing to
tomorrow’s semi-final races. In the first heat of the
women’s varsity eight, Trinity raced conservatively early on,
taking nearly 1,000 meters to gain open water on St. Lawrence
University, but eventually moved out to take a five and a half
second victory with a time of 6:39.82. St. Lawrence placed
second in 6:45.38 with Tufts in third (6:49.09) to take the final
qualifying spot.
Williams competed in the second heat and made an immediate
statement in the first 300 meters of the race, taking open water
over Coast Guard within the first 30 strokes of their race.
After gaining ground on the rest of the field, the women took their
rating down, but continued to apply power and finished with over
three lengths of open water over second place Coast Guard and third
place William Smith. Their time of 6:33.94 was the fastest of
the day by nearly six seconds.
In the third and fourth heats, Bates, Holy Cross, Skidmore, Ithaca,
UNH, and Smith raced to top three finishes to advance to the
tomorrow’s semifinal heats.
“I was very pleased with the way we raced today in difficult
tailwind conditions,” remarked head coach Justin Moore.
“I felt that we had improved this week over the course of
practice and the women’s performance seems to have validated
that feeling. We have a big day tomorrow, but I have confidence
that our focus is on doing a good job in the semifinal and if we
can execute there, hopefully we will do a great job in the grand
final.”
The Williams 2V, 3VA, and 3VB boats will compete tomorrow as well
in morning heats and afternoon finals. Due to lineup shifts,
Williams will not enter a novice eight tomorrow, but instead will
enter two boats in the 3V event. The 2V boat is ranked first
in the second varsity event, while the 3VA and 3VB boats are ranked
first and second in the third varsity event.
