The University of Rhode Island women’s rowing team took to Cambridge, Massachusetts on Saturday, taking on Northeastern University and Boston University.
Through five races on the weekend, Rhode Island finished last across the board. The Varsity 8+ boat, led by second-year coxswain Lily Stasaitis and fourth-year stroke Jessica Tosi, kicked off the action, finishing 14 seconds behind second-place Northeastern. The boat crossed the finish line with a time of 7:27.8.
“Even though we’re not winning the race, we’re still racing well,” URI Head Coach Shelagh Donohoe said. “We’re racing teams that are just a little faster. I feel like our speed is good and it’s increasing every week.”
The Second Varsity 8+ boat had the closest finish of the day, picking up the pace in their final sprint towards the finish. The boat of third-year coxswain Ellie McGee, first-year Eryn Wale, fourth-year captain Samantha Gumprecht, fourth-year Sarah Pecoraro, fifth-year Sammie Gorecki, first-year Amanda Cubit, third-year Bella Bruno, first-year Maia Hembruff and second-year Emma Larsh turned on the afterburners in the final stretch, coming back from more than a boat length behind to finish just 0.8 seconds back of second-place Northeastern with a time of 7:37.
“Northeastern and BU have some really great speed, but we were right there in it,” Gumprecht said. “It was really fun to have some close, competitive, tight racing… We had a great performance [in the Second Varsity 8+] in my opinion. ”
Next, fourth-year coxswain Sawyer McNish and second-year coxswain Evelyn Tabor led the First and Second Varsity 4+ boats on the day, respectively. McNish’s boat came in at 9:13.6, finishing as the only team above nine minutes. As for the Second Varsity 4+, Tabor’s boat came in just over 20 seconds behind the Terriers, crossing the line with a fourth-place finish of 9:21.4.
“I think they’ve trained really hard and they’ve put the work in, and that’s something you can’t make up,” Donohoe said. “That’s why I ask them to put the work in, and they’ve done a great job throughout the whole year…So I do think we have more speed in us, and as I said, they’re working at hitting that top level as we come into these last final weeks. So I’m really positive on where we’re at.”
Finally, the Third Varsity 8+, led by second-year coxswain Olivia Moretti, finished the day with a fourth-place finish of 9:13.9. They finished behind Northeastern’s B boat, who cleared the race in 8:36.3.
“I could have an easy schedule and win every race, but that’s not really doing that much good,” Donohoe said. “I think always racing people that are as good or a little faster is always a challenge, yes. I think you learn a lot from it in a couple weeks [at the A-10 Championships].”
As the team’s championship race season continues, the team will head to Fairlee, Vermont to take on Dartmouth College and Fordham University in the final race before heading to the Eastern Sprints on May 5.