Worcester, Mass. - The Colby Men's and Women's Crew teams closed out their season with some of their best performances of the year at the National Invitational Rowing Championships, which also served as the NESCAC Championship. Despite continued hits from illness, challenging conditions and strong competition, the Mules raced with grit and determination to continue the consistent and impressive climb up the results sheet that has been the case over the course of the whole season.
In the morning heats, the #14 seeded WV8 (
Rhea Bakshi,
Tori Richards,
Maryjane Pennington,
Katie McKinley,
Alyssa Kent,
Harriet Winterer,
Mackenzie Younker,
Kirsten Ishii,
Caroline Bedrosian) finished fourth in their heat with a time of 7:06.6, less than a second ahead of #11 seeded Smith College's time of 7:07.3 and well ahead of Conn College's 7:44.3 to secure a place in the Petite Final. It was the first time this season that Colby had beaten a Smith boat, showing just how the team's hard work all year was paying off in championship season. By the afternoon races, the wind was still strong enough to affect the start, but despite the challenging conditions, the WV8 were able to race strong and smart to outplace their seed with a twelfth place 7:07.5 finish. In the W2V8 (
Kat Specht,
Olivia Mundy,
Pardis Koplos,
Isabel Grimes,
Molly George,
Abby Conway,
Sophia Graizzaro,
Jules Lovett,
Alessandra Amano), Colby's morning 7:28.2 heat time was good enough to secure a place in the Petite Final as well. Their final saw lots of grit and commitment from the boat to finish twelfth with a time of 7:40.1. In the Women's Open four (
Laney Bagwell,
Jessie Rose,
Ainsley Bonang,
Sloane Hauck,
Maddie Rapelyea), both morning and afternoon races were rowed with integrity, commitment and strength. They finished the day with an 11th place finish against some great competition.
Despite limited numbers again on the men's side, the Men's Open four (Maddie Zullow,
Ethan Boone,
Mason Cheney,
Collin Steinberger,
Charlie Stevenson) turned in yet another highlight performance for the Mules. The Mules competed against crews from Trinity, Bates, Boston College, Hobart, Rochester, and Marist. The race in the Grand Final came down to a thrilling sprint between Marist and Colby, with both crews pushing each other in front of the rest of the field. Marist won the close race with a time of 6:53.1. Colby finished in second place with a time of 6:54.0. University of Rochester rounded out the top 3 with a time of 7:07.0. It was the kind of impressive medal performance the team has been building towards the whole year.
The NIRC also served as the NESCAC Championhsip, with both Men's and Women's Crew finishing in 7th place for NESCAC; All-NESCAC selections will be announced soon. The races proved to be a strong finish to an impressive season for the team, who raced their best during championship season, despite facing numerous challenges. The Mules will return an experienced core of young rowers next year, who will surely be hungry to build on the successes of the team this year.
Meet Results (PDF)
