Crew Finishes Season On Wave of Spring Success

Author: Ashley Elpern

With the final race of the season over, the Middlebury crew team has much to be proud as they sent many boats to the New England Rowing Championships (NERC) held last weekend and performed strongly throughout the season.

At the NERC, the varsity women's eight (Anne Thompson '02, Susannah Cowden '04, Mary Gerrie '03, Lisa McAndrews '02, Carolyn Gersh '04, Becky Latka '04, Emily Loesche '05 and Catherine Foster '05) faced a tough opening heat. Head coach Alex Machi said that they had "a great final race" but that ultimately they were "out-gunned by bigger, stronger teams." As the level of competition is much higher at New Englands, with each team qualifying to attend, the women had to compete against teams such as the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and Bates College that they had not faced in previous races this season, explained Machi.

The women's open four (sophomores Taylor Bolz, Betsy Sullivan, Sarah Bunnell and senior Maria Stern) was seen as the best shot at medaling at the NERC, as the strong line-up of had been putting in excellent practices all week. Unfortunately, in the preliminary heat, with just 250 meters left in the race, one of the rower's oar was swept around and stopped the boat dead in the water. "They were comfortably in second place, right on the heels of Bowdoin," said Machi. With this unexpected break in momentum, the boat did not place in the top two to go on to the finals.

The men's lightweight four of Brian Ambrette '02, and sophomores G.P. LeBourdais, Luke Mueller and Jeff Koppernolle, on the other hand, safely made in to the finals with a second place finish behind the University of Vermont, decimating season-long rival Franklin Pierce. Ambrette said that out of 17 boats in the pool, they were the only lightweight boat that qualified to race. In the final, Machi commented that "conditions were not favorable for the light and lean Middlebury men," as they placed last in the final.

Of the season as a whole, Ambrette said, "lots of effort was made towards improvement this season," pointing towards the silver and bronze medals garnered at the New England Fours Championship and his boat making it to the finals at the NERC. He called special attention to the open men's pair of sophomores of James Black and Steve Gangemi, who put in "a huge amount of work to row the most technically demanding boat. They deserve a lot of credit," he said. In addition, Ambrette thanked Machi for the great deal of energy put into to coaching and training the men's team throughout the season.

The novice women's eight (first-years Sara Hayes, Emily Berg, Lauren Miller, Julie Stevens, Emily Berlanstein, Lydia Beaudrot, Kendra Myers and Dianne Nguyen) did not make it to the finals, as their strong race was not able to put them in front of boats from UNH and Tufts University. "It was the first time we had come up against teams with real speed," said Hayes. "The whole season we had been pushing ourselves, but had no one else to push us to our potential."

In looking at the season as a whole, Machi noted that it will be impossible to replace the six seniors, Susy King '02, Sara Selgrade '02, McAndrews, Stern, Thompson and Brian Ambrette, as "they have put so much of themselves into the team."

He added that this year's sophomores and juniors will have to assume leadership roles next year, but that "we've done what is necessary to ensure that we are even stronger next year."