The University of Rhode Island rowing team dropped races to both Northeastern University and Dartmouth College at the Lake Morey Regatta on Saturday.
“The competition was fast, there’s no doubt about that,” Rhode Island Head Coach Shelagh Donohoe said. “We didn’t race to our potential, and the results show that.”
URI’s First Varsity 8+ boat, coxed by fourth-year Ellie McGee, opened the day with a tight race against the Huskies. Northeastern finished at 7:06.7, with the Rams behind at 7:14.9.
When the boat went back out for the second set of races, Rhode Island’s First Varsity 8+ time fell to 7:28.4, while Dartmouth finished at 7:04.8. The difference in times between the sessions was caused by the wind picking up, according to Donohoe.
“I feel like we left a lot of speed on the table,” Donohoe said. “We’re looking to try to be a little bit more consistent with our racing as we come into the second half of our season.”
Fourth-year captain Bella Bruno was a member of the First Varsity 8+ boat in the races on Saturday. While still proud of the team’s performance, she knew that they were up against tough opponents.
“We learned a lot from it,” Bruno said. “Using that race, we’re going to use that experience to power us for the races coming up the next few weekends.”
Rhode Island’s Second Varsity 8+ delivered similar results, finishing nearly 10 seconds behind Northeastern at 7:39.7. Dartmouth again proved dominant in the second session, widening the margin of victory to 25.2 seconds.
The Rams’ First Varsity 4+ boat was the only one to see improved times between the two sessions. Third-year coxswain Evelyn Tabor led the Varsity 4+ to an 8:24.7 finish after finishing at 8:30.2 in the first session.
Rhody’s final race came from the Third Varsity 8+, which closed out the regatta with an 8:47.4 finish after finishing in 8:07.5 earlier against Northeastern.
“Consistency is key,” Donohoe said. “I don’t think that happened [on Saturday]. This week, we’re looking to bring what we’re doing in practice, which has been really good and high level, to bring that into a race situation.”
On the Third Varsity 8+, there were only two upperclassmen, displaying the young core building in the program with just seven athletes set to graduate following the season.
“We have very strong, solid depth in our program right now,” Bruno said. “We put in so much solid effort this season, and I think we’re going to have good results going forward for the end of the season and going into next year.”
Next up for URI is a trip to North Carolina for the Lake Wheeler Invitational; a spot in the event opened up this year, which allowed Rhode Island to be the only Atlantic 10 Conference representative.
“We’ve been looking to go to this race for the last probably four or five years,” Donohoe said. “It’s great to be able to race out of region; we’re going to see some good competition. We’re excited about that.”
The Rams will compete in a field heavily dominated by Atlantic Coast Conference programs, with the regatta hosted by the University of North Carolina.
“We’re all ecstatic to go; we don’t often get to fly to faraway races,” Bruno said. “This is an incredible experience, and we’re all very excited to get down there and give it our all.”
The two-day event will begin on Friday, with the first Rhode Island action being the First Varsity 4+ that will compete in the ninth event of the morning, scheduled for 10:50 a.m. The full invitational will be broadcast on ACCNX, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
