Results Still in Dark for Crew Team Finish

Author: Ryan Reese

The fall season of men's and women's crew came to a close this past Saturday. There was however, something "a little fishy" about the conclusion to a successful campaign. There was no foul play, cheating or illegal tactics at work. The fishy odor emitted wherever the Middlebury rowers went was produced by their plethora of trophies. The Head of the Fish in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., takes the aquatic step one step further than usual with the presentation of dried fish heads mounted on all the trophies and awards given out at the conclusion of the races. Fortunately, the Panther rowers embraced the odor of our scaly friends by turning in solid and competitive performances from the vast majority of their varsity and novice boats.

The Panthers had a busy day on the water by participating in almost every category available. Mixed doubles, women's lightweight doubles, fours, and eights, women's open fours, men's lightweight fours men's open fours, eights, and a series of novice races all took to the water representing the navy and white. Although the organizers of this competition are clever when it comes to awards, they did not show a strong affinity to timeliness or organization. It is currently a mystery as to how all of these boats finished. Neither the men's crew, women's crew, nor their coach has any clue as to who finished where and who won what. The Mystery of the Fish will surely be solved at a later date.

Despite the fact that there is still this is a cloud of ambiguity over actual finishing times and results, Head Coach Alex Machi said, "Although we don't have any official numbers, every boat I talked to felt good about their respective rows and felt competitive throughout."

The Head of the Fish is traditionally a damp, gloomy race where enthusiasm and spirit compensate for the dismal weather. Contrary to the norm, this past Saturday was a beautiful sunny day. This pleasant surprise soon turned to the meteorological dark side during the afternoon as gale force winds picked up and made a difficult go of things for many of the afternoon events. Although the conditions were, once again, less than ideal, the Panthers stepped up to the challenge and rowed impressively. It is never easy to adapt to climatic conditions in any sport, but particularly in crew.

The men's and women's squads both considered their fall competition series a success and look to continue their success this spring. It was undoubtedly a developmental season for the squad with many young rowers making the transition to upper level competition in order to fill out the varsity boats. Both the Middlebury men and women brought home a lot of hardware over the course of the season and this tight knit group of dedicated athletes look to be a force to be reckoned with during the upcoming spring season.