The Rams won all eight races they competed in on Saturday. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
The University of Rhode Island women’s rowing team swept the competition at the Saint Joseph’s invitational on Saturday, winning all eight of their races at Overpeck Park in New Jersey.
The race gave them a first look at fellow Atlantic 10 opponents, with George Washington, the University of Massachusetts and Saint Joseph’s all in attendance.
The Varsity 8+ boat was the first to come out on top for Rhode Island. In a tight finish that saw the top three teams cross the line within eight seconds of each other, URI would beat second-place Geroge Mason by 3.5 seconds with a time of 7:02.9 minutes. Comprised of second-year Hailey Pardi, fourth-year Catie Castle, second-year Bella Bruno, fifth-year Julia Fortin, fourth-year Elizabeth Greason, first-year Bethany Nordstrom, third-year Nicole Jones, first-year Emma Barnhart and second-year coxswain Elli McGee, the Varsity 8+ recorded a more convincing win in their second race Saturday afternoon. Coming in at 7:15.5 minutes in their second contest, they bested second-place Marist by a full 12 seconds.
“I think the women raced well this past weekend,” said URI head coach Shelagh Donohoe. “We had some goals that we were trying to achieve and we had been working on all week and I think we were able to go out there and accomplish them in a race situation.”
The Second Varsity 8+ boat was the second boat in action on Saturday, taking the win in an even closer finish that saw them pull ahead of second-place George Washington by just 0.4 seconds, coming in at 7:21.5 minutes. In similar fashion to the Varsity 8+ boat, the team of fourth-year Sammi Gorecki, fourth-year Lauren Thomas, third-year Sarah Pecoraro, third-year Samantha Gumprecht, first-year Cait Reardon, fourth-year Emily Drappeau, first-year Amelia Katula, third-year Olivia Kowalski and fifth-year coxswain Danielle Swan also had a much more dominant win in their second race. They came in at 7:27 minutes, 18.3 seconds ahead of hosts Saint Joseph’s.
The third boat that saw the water in a pair of races for URI was the Varsity 4+ boat. Third-year Emily Olin, third-year Alexis Moore, third-year Jessica Tosi, first-year Emma Larsh and first-year coxswain Lily Stasaitis finished with a pair of victories, crossing the finish line with time to spare in both races. They finished their first race in 8:09.6 minutes, finishing 11.4 seconds ahead of Bucknell. Their second race saw the largest margin of victory of the day, claiming the win almost 30 seconds ahead of St. Joe’s with an 8:11.7 minute finish.
“I think we’re right where we should be [at this point in the season],” Donohoe said. “I think we’re in a good place right now, but I also feel like we need to continue to improve on a daily and weekly basis in order to be able to achieve our goals in May.”
Finally, the Third Varsity 8+ boat rounded out a successful day of competition with yet another pair of first-place finishes. The crew of first-year Irma Accius, first-year Emma Brookins, first-year Jasmyn Hayes, fourth-year Hannah Bachert, third-year Caedron Sullivan, second-year Ella Godsey, first-year Abby Galayda, first-year Lydia Dillon and third-year coxswain Sawyer McNish finished ahead of Bucknell by 12.6 second with a time of 7:46.4 minutes. Their second race saw similar success as they finished in 7:29 minutes, 9.4 seconds ahead of second-place University of Connecticut.
According to Donohoe, the sport of rowing is one that takes a full team effort, which is the mindset she takes into practice each week when setting goals for her team.
“I don’t like to pick out any individuals, because usually when you stick out, you’re doing something wrong,” Donohoe said. “I felt like we went out there and we attacked it the way we had talked about as a program and as a team. [For] a lot of the younger rowers, this was some of their first races, so I feel like they did a great job as well.”
According to Fortin, who was the only graduating fourth-year to return this season as a fifth-year, the victories displayed valuable improvement for the program against other Atlantic 10 schools.
“Last year when we went to this race we weren’t as successful and we were still able to come out on top in the Atlantic 10 [Championship] race,” Fortin said. “It’s really good to see that right now we’re doing really well comparatively to last year.”
Next up for the Rams, they will head to Worcester, Massachusetts to compete against Holy Cross, MIT, Sacred Heart and Bucknell on Saturday, looking to continue the success they have found in the early stages of the season.