Rowers Show Strength at New England Fours

Author: Ashley Elpern

Medals showered down upon the Middlebury crew team last weekend at the New England Fours Championship at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., as the rowers claimed many victories in their penultimate 2,000-meter race of the season, with the New England Rowing Championships (NERC) coming up this weekend.

The lightweight men's varsity boats, competing against fellow lightweights for the first time this season, placed second and third overall. Brian Ambrette '02 and sophomores G.P. LeBourdais, Luke Mueller and Jeff Koppernolle won the silver, second to New York Maritime, which Ambrette said has always been "a very fast crew." The second four (Kevin Sullivan '04.5, Dave Heyman '03.5, Ben Yates '03 and Paul Armstrong '04) finished right behind the first Middlebury boat and ahead of Brandeis. "They had a really good race," said Ambrette, "showing a lot of heart and improvement. It was a nice way for them to wrap up their season."

Ambrette's boat will be rowing in the NERC and placed in a preliminary heat with University of Vermont (UVM), Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Franklin Pierce and the University of Connecticut (UConn). "The heat is very good for us, as we have beaten Franklin Pierce and they have beaten UConn," said Ambrette. "We have a decent chance of making it to the finals."

The men's novice four entered the day in a tough heat against the University of Massachusetts at Lowell (UMass Lowell) and Connecticut College, coming in second and beating Connecticut College by just two seconds with a time of 7:03. Qualifying fifth in the finals, first-years Hans Manzke, Bryce Roche, Steve Venturi and Ian Tyree won the bronze with a time of 6:54.

"We had an awesome race and really cleaned up our form," said Manzke. "The race was a culmination of all of our effort put in throughout the season." Manzke also gave significant credit to the novice coach, Doug Welling. "Our team owes lots of credit to Doug. We really appreciate his dedication and he has been the guiding force for our season," he said.

On the women's varsity side, Lisa McAndrews '02, Mary Gerrie '03, Emily Loesche '05 and Anne Thompson '02 had an excellent day, winning their heat and taking the bronze in the final. Machi gave special appreciation to coxswain Nora Greenglass '03, who has been out of racing this season due to injury. "Nora really did a great job psyching them up and helping them maintain focus," he said. "Her experience as a rower helps a lot and it will be good to see her back rowing next year."

Machi said that Taylor Bolz '04, Becky Sullivan '04, Maria Stern '02 and Catherine Foster '05 had "a pretty quick time for their heat but were in a tough group." The boat finished third, with only the top two continuing to the finals. Ironically, their time would have placed them first in the other heat of boats that sent two teams to the finals.

The varsity women still have one weekend of racing left, and they will be sending an eight and a four to the NERC.

Rounding up the races was another gutsy performance from the women's novice team. The four of first-years Emily Berlanstein, Lydia Beaudrot, Kendra Myers and Dianne Nguyen won their head to head race against Massachusetts Maritime Academy despite a rocky start. "We had raced them before and won, so we were confident that we could beat them," said Berlanstein. "The whole race felt close as it was back and forth the whole time, but we pulled it out at the sprint."

Their counterparts, first-years Sara Hayes, Emily Berg, Lauren Miller and Julie Stevens, won their first heat against Assumption College, UVM and Clark University despite rough winds and strong currents that made the start shaky. "The other boats were more ready than we were, but by the thousand-meter mark we were ahead of everyone," said Hayes.

The conditions were better for the finals, and although Bowdoin and Amherst took the lead quickly, the Middlebury four was able to push ahead of Clark at the halfway point. "We were close with them until the final sprint, but then we took off," said Hayes. She noted that the boat wanted to do well for Welling and that "everyone pulled it together in the end of the race for him."

Both fours will comprise the eight that the women's novice team will bring to the NERC. "The eight is our strength," said Berlanstein. "We will be practicing in it all week and based on our past victories we feel we are qualified to medal.