Crew heads to NE regatta

Author: Stephanie Pritchard

The warm weather enjoyed by Midd-kids everywhere was especially appreciated by the Middlebury rowers who had their first water practices since spring break. After a week of intensive workouts before sunrise, Middlebury crew traveled to Saratoga, N.Y. to compete against the University of Vermont (UVM), Skidmore College and William Smith College.

The team knew they would find fierce competition at this regatta especially from William Smith who, going in to this weekend, was rated as the number 10 NCAA Division III women's program in the country. "This regatta really helped to sort out collegiate team rankings in a very short spring season," said Coach Alex Machi. "Middlebury's women stepped on to the national stage with a strong performance against a squad held in high esteem by crew coaches throughout the United States."

The women's team, following up their success at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Amherst College, had a win in the second varsity fours event and placed a close third in both the first four, second four and eights events. Middlebury's second women's varsity four - coxswain Camden Burton '06.5, Anna Eisenstein '07, Emily Dawson '08.5, Molly Vaughn '06 and Rebecca Hollewijn '07 - is currently undefeated.

The men's varsity team had their first win of the season in the fours race against Skidmore and UVM. The boat - coxswain Brooke Adams '07, Doug Penrose '06, Dave Wood '07.5, Matt Daylor '06 and Matt Griswold '07.5 - did a phenomenal job in the 2000m sprint against Skidmore and UVM, both traditionally strong boats, placing first by several boat lengths against a slight headwind. Adams reported that it was an overall great row. "We had a clean race-start in which we pulled away from the competition and managed to hold them off, maintaining a large gap, for the entire race," she commented. "This was definitely our best row of the season so far, and after positive reinforcement from a race like yesterday's, we hope to exceed our expectations again at New England fours where we will see rivals, Bowdoin and Amherst."

Some have suggested that a rowing program at a school situated so far north cannot be successful, but Middlebury's record tells another story. "For us to be within a length of a boat ranked number 10 in the country with only four days of on-the-water training since returning from our eight day Florida training trip is a testament to what this group of women is capable of," said Machi. "And there's no telling what both these programs could accomplish if they had rowing tanks to train with during the early spring season weeks - like Williams, Trinity and other NESCAC programs."

The team returns to Massachusetts Maritime Academy next weekend to compete at the New England Fours regatta against other small, club rowing teams including Bowdoin, Amherst, Roger Williams and Franklin Pierce. The upcoming weeks look to be full of hard practices and tough competition but the team is ready to put up a fight.