The University of Rhode Island Women’s Rowing team started their spring season in the Cooper River with a dramatic finish in the Varsity 8+ final.
The Rams entered this season with some new faces on the coaching staff. They added former Ram Katie Shattuck who was a four year rower from 2015 to 2019. They also added Ellen White, who was a top 15 rower in the nation for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for the past four years. Despite these new assistants, the top of the staff remains the same as Head Coach Shelagh Donohoe enters her 18th season as the team’s head coach.
“Every year the team is different and new kids come in and there are the seniors that graduate,” Donohoe said. “With that the whole dynamic and fitness of the athletes change.”
It’s a challenge that Donohoe has had a lot of success at, as she’s won the Atlantic 10 nine times. She has also been named A-10 Coach of the Year eight times and sent her team to six National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships.
The Rams and Donohoe finished the first half of their season back on Nov. 11, 2023. The Rams then had to wait 140 days for their next meet. This four month stretch allowed for the Rams to get stronger and faster, according to Donohoe.
“The work you do in the winter is going to tell you your speed in the spring,” Donohoe said. “At this stage of the game you’re as strong as you’re going to get but technically you can still make changes that will make the boat faster.”
At the Doc Hosea Invitational, the Rams coaches and rowers made in-meet adjustments as well. Three of the Rams’ five boats improved their times from the heats to the finals. One of the few boats that didn’t was the Rams’ Varsity 4+ boat. However, their initial time of 7:52.43 minutes made them the only URI boat to qualify for the grand final, where they finished in sixth with a time of 8:01.11 minutes.
The Rams first Varsity 8+ boat heat time of 6:47.40 minutes was not good enough for the grand final, but they had a better performance in the Petite Final. The Rams finished with a time of 6:44.13, a time that would have placed the Rams sixth in the grand final, beating out the George Washington University Revolutionaries. In their own race, it led to a photo finish between the second place Rams and first place Georgetown University Hoyas. The difference in time was as small as 0.01 seconds. This close finish was not only exciting but a learning moment, according to Donohoe.
“I think what that shows you is that every stroke is important, everything you do in those 2,000 meters is important,” Donohoe said. “You learn from it and they will be on the other side of it the next time.”
Third-year Hailey Pardi, who sits in the stroke seat of the Rams’ Varsity 8+, also described it as a learning experience.
“That was some of the freshmen’s first collegiate races and they learned you can win and lose races by hundredths of a second,” Pardi said. “The lesson for them is that you have to go as hard as you can no matter how you’re feeling.”
Pardi is one of the most respected members of the URI rowing team according to Donohoe. Pardi was a second team A-10 rower last season and a leader on this team, according to Donohoe. She first started sitting in the stroke seat last season on the Narrow River against the University of Massachusetts and Boston College. Pardi was a key contributor in her first-year as well; that season the Rams won their fourth straight A-10 title back in 2022. Both Pardi and Donohoe agreed that the lessons from this competition will be key to their success later in the season and they’re happy to experience this so early on.
The Rams will row again this Saturday at the Overpeck Invitational in Ridgefield, New Jersey. It’s the first time since 2022 that the Rams will compete at this invitational. That season, the Rams’ Varsity 8+ boat placed second with a time of 6:42.30 minutes. The Rams did win three of the four flights that year, showcasing how deep of a team they had. This meet will present a similar opportunity for this edition of the Rams.