The University of Rhode Island women’s rowing team concluded their fall season at the Foot of the Charles on Saturday in Boston in one final tune-up before the spring championship season.
Rhode Island had three teams compete in the Varsity 8+ event against 23 other boats from Brown University, Radcliffe College, Northeastern University and Boston College. The first URI boat to cross the finish line was the First Varsity 8+, who secured 11th place with a time of 14:50.4. The Second Varsity 8+ finished in 19th place with a time of 15:42.4. URI concluded the race with the Third Varsity 8+ finishing 26th at 16:51.8.
“I think we did a pretty good job as a team overall, being able to cap our fall season off with a good race,” third-year Emma Barnhart said.
While racing, the wind swept through the course as teams dealt with a 11-13 MPH headwind. URI Head Coach Shelagh Donohoe said that all of the teams at the Foot of the Charles had the same cross headwind.
“Now if ideally, if it was flat [wind], that would be wonderful, but we are an outdoor sport and we gotta learn to row in whatever’s given to us and Saturday was a pretty good cross headwind and I think the athletes handled it well,” Donohoe said.
Barnhart said it was challenging rowing in the crosswind but the conditions helped the team learn how to control the speed of their boats for future races.
Radcliffe, URI and Boston College participated in the Novice 8+ event. The lightweight team for Radcliffe finished first with a time of 12:50.2. In second place, URI finished with a time of 13:22.2. Coming in last place, Boston College had a time of 13:45.0.
“A couple of our novices this was their first race ever in their collegiate career and I think they all did a very good job with handling the challenging crosswind conditions,” Barnhart said. “We were very proud of the outcome of the race, which was awesome.”
In the Varsity 4+ event, Boston University, Brown and Radcliffe faced off against each other to close out the Foot of the Charles. Boston’s lightweight team came in first with a time of 12:50.1, with Brown coming in second with a time of 13:21.0. Radcliffe finished last with a time of 14:35.0.
After completing the fall season, URI is looking forward to competing in the spring season.
“I think our goal and it’s always our goal is to be in position to win the A-10 Championship and to represent the school at NCAA [Championship],” Donohoe said. “You know and that is our goal, that’s the team’s goal and you know, we have a lot of work to do in order to be in that position.”
URI will travel to DeLand, Florida on Jan. 9, 2025 for their training camp before the first regatta of the spring, its championship season.