BOSTON, MA -- Four women from the Williams crew
team made the trek to Boston to race at the C.R.A.S.H.-B. (Charles
River All Star Has-Beens) World Indoor Rowing Championship this
weekend. After participating in the annual Ergathon at William,
Emma Pelegri-O’Day ’12, Kate Shaper ’12, Emily
Rockett ’10, and Annie Haley ’13 drove to Boston to
race rowers from around the world. Each rower at
C.R.A.S.H.-B.’s pulls a 2k piece on the ergometer, the same
distance that the Williams Women’s Crew will be racing on the
water this spring.
Despite racing directly after Ergathon, the women performed very
well. Rockett posted the fastest Williams time of the day at
7:24.5, with Shaper hot on her heels at 7:28.3. Pelegri-O’Day
pulled a 7:37.1, with Haley setting a time of 7:43.3. Shaper was
enthusiastic about her return to the 2k distance: “2k season
started on Monday! Being able to actually pull a 2k the day before
my season started got me really excited for racing short distances.
C.R.A.S.H.-B.'s sort of shocked me into that new, higher level of
exertion over a shorter time.” Both Rockett and Haley posted
new personal record times.
Though the rowers are all a part of the Williams crew, they were unable to row as such, due to NCAA rules. Instead, Pelegri-O’Day and Haley rowed for the “Myrtle Beach Boat Club,” in homage to the spring break training location, while Shaper and Rockett rowed unaffiliated. According to Rockett, rowing in a non-Williams environment was different than rowing in a Williams context, but also worthwhile: “Racing in a Williams context, you're constantly trying to prove yourself and maintain the best standing on the team you possibly can. It was neat to race in C.R.A.S.H.-B.’s because I had no idea where I stood, and it was really cool to see my hard work over the winter pay off outside the purple bubble.” Shaper retained her Williams mindset even without her uni: “We might not have been racing in our Williams crew gear, but we were there as Williams students and teammates just the same.”
C.R.A.S.H.-B.’s were a great way to kick-start the spring
season, and just one more chance to race. Shaper, a recruited
rower, who captained the St. Paul’s School team in high
school, commented, “It's funny to me that I can still count
the number of 2k erg tests that I have done despite all of my years
of rowing. To me it was just an opportunity to see a lot of great
racing from people of all ages and to put forward my best effort
under the given circumstances.”
The whole team was energized by Ergathon, and the rowers who
attended C.R.A.S.H.-B.’s enthusiastically returned to
Williams to begin officially training again. C.R.A.S.H.-B.’s
were a good precursor to the annual Mad Cow Sprints, to be held on
Saturday, March 13th, in which the crew will pull two 2K pieces on
the erg.
The Williams women’s spring season started on Monday,
February 15th, with the return of coaches Justin Moore and Brad
Hemmerly. The team has just over a month until departing for Myrtle
Beach, SC for the annual training trip on March 19th.
Full C.R.A.S.H.-B results can be found here.
