Men’s and women’s rowing breeze through competition

The University of Rhode Island men’s and women’s rowing teams continued the 2016 season’s pattern of top-notch competition this past weekend, with the men dominating and the women once again hoisting the Resolute Cup.

The men’s team raced at the University of Connecticut against UConn, The University of New Hampshire, the University of Vermont, UMass Lowell and UMass Amherst. Rhode Island placed first in every race they were in, coming in several seconds before the other boats.

“This past weekend in the Patriots cup, our eight was able to improve its time by almost twenty seconds,” Mike Ricker, a freshman in the second novice eight, said. “At the end of the race everyone was ecstatic that we had blown our competition out of the water.”

It has been a productive season thus far for the squad, as they are consistently putting forth impressive times with a group rife with underclassmen.

“I think it’s a great turnout for the team to win all of the races we entered,” Steve O’Brien, junior in the Varsity 8+, said. “It’s especially good since some of the rowers only started a few months ago. It shows the effort that the team and coaches put in to make our club very competitive.”

Coming up on Saturday, April 23, the men’s Varsity 8+ are racing against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Bates at MIT. Their race will take place on the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts. On Sunday, April 24, the rest of the team will race in Worcester, Massachusetts, hoping to build on their recent wave of momentum.

The women’s rowing team followed in the men’s footsteps, winning their tenth consecutive Resolute Cup this past weekend as well. They beat both Boston College (BC) and Boston University (BU) after racing victoriously on the Charles River.

In the first Varsity 8+ race, they finished in a time of 6:42.6, finishing more than three seconds ahead of BC and nine seconds faster than BU. Rhode Island finished in second place behind BC at 7:02.7 in the second Varsity 8+ race.

As far as lineups go for the women’s rowing boats, their records have been more than formidable. The first Varsity 8+ has a record of 10-5, the second Varsity 8+ is 8-7, the Varsity 4+ holds 6-7 and the third Varsity 8+ is at 4-4.

The women will race next on Sunday, April 24, at Holy Cross against them and MIT in Worcester, Massachusetts.