Worcester, Mass. - The Colby College Crew teams started off the racing portion of their Fall season at the Quinsigamond Snake Regatta on Saturday. The weather, which earlier in the week forced the cancelation of at least one other regatta, turned out to be just overcast skies with occasional showers and light winds. 

On the women's side, Colby's varsity 8 finished 11th out of 19 crews in an event that featured some of the top programs in New England. MIT won the event and Colby was able to finish ahead of the 'B' crew from Williams College - a team that competed at the NCAA Rowing Championships last spring. With two weeks now until the Head of the Charles Regatta, it was a good chance for CWC to see where the work they've been doing in the first month of the season has them, and to help frame the next few weeks of the racing season.  

On the men's side of the schedule Colby had two crews racing and they finished 9th and 20th out of 25 crews. In an event that featured three Division 1 programs and two Division 3 teams that were at the IRA (Intercollegiate Rowing Association) Championship last spring, it was a tight and competitive field of racing with only 20 seconds separating places 4 through 13 over the 2.5 mile race course. Colby learned from a few mistakes during their race and were still able to finish ahead of two crews from Division 1 Marist College. 

According to Head Coach Stew Stokes "Our goal for the first race of the year is to learn about ourselves and how we handle the competitive environment of racing so that we can get better each day in practice as we prepare for the upcoming races. We certainly accomplished that with a lot of good lessons learned out on the water. Each crew had parts of their race that we were pleased with and that were well-executed, as well as parts that we need to improve on. We're proud of the effort that the whole team has been putting in so far this fall and we're excited to keep fitter, stronger and faster in the weeks ahead."

Full results can be found here.

Rosters:
Women's Varsity 8: Shayna Leinberger '26, Isabel Grimes '25, Eliza Nilson '26, Khaki Sawyer '26, Ellie Pohlig '26, Nana Dondorful-Amos '26, Maryjane Pennington '25, Kirsten Ishii '25, Katherine White ';26

Men's Varsity 8: Madeleine Zullow '24, Charlie Anderson '25, Danny Sullivan '26, Jack Weinberg '26, Charlie Stevenson '24, William Eardley '26, Luca Krueger '24, Theo Grossman '27, Cole Christensen '27

Men's 2nd Varsity 8: Alyssa West '25, Elliot Do '25, Brendan Barrett '27, Justin Armata '27, Aidan Fowler '27, Lachlan Bailey '27, Evan Goggin '24, Connor Kennedy '27, Bennett Jones '27

Colby Crew will be back in action on October 21st for the Head of Charles Regatta.