Worcester, Mass. - #6 Men's crew made the trip down to Worcester over the weekend for the New England Rowing Championships. Throughout the day, crews were met with a myriad of conditions between variable winds, rain, and a brief bout of sun. Heading into the weekend, Colby's first and second varsity eights were both ranked #6 in the IRCA coaches poll. Racing was tight and the Mules were ready. The Men's first, second, and third varsity eights raced a morning heat and afternoon final. The fourth varsity included only seven crews and was final-only. With Maine rival, Bates, seeded just ahead of Colby in the first and second varsity heats, the pressure was on to repeat last weekend's result. Both crews got the job done, finishing second in their respective heats to punch their ticket to the grand final. The third varsity also out performed their seeding in the morning and finished second in their heat. All four men's crews raced in grand finals in the afternoon, making Saturday a historic day for the Mules.
Now for the lineups and some results:
The first varsity with Will Leonard '29,
Connor Katz '29,
Andy Li '28,
Ian Ucko '28,
Jack Childress '26,
Jack Weinberg '26,
Jackson Harrington '28,
William Eardley '26, and
Cole Christensen '27, were one of 15 teams competing in the event. They finished second in their morning heat with a time of 6:09.63. They were 6.6 seconds behind first-place Trinity, and about 2.4 seconds ahead of third-place Bates. With the top two teams in each heat progressing on to the afternoon's grand final, the first varsity earned their spot. In the final, Colby finished 6th behind Tufts.
The second varsity with
Charlie Pantelick '27, Benjamin Zipkin '29,
Bennett Jones '27,
William Steinwachs '29,
Brendan Barrett '27,
Robbie Trowbridge '28,
Reed Blaeser '29,
Alex Malkani '29, and
Nolan Roche '28, put on quite the show in their heat. With 13 teams in the Men's 2V, their event was also a three-heat format. In a super tight race, the Mules finished second in their heat, behind Tufts and ahead of Bates. Tufts won in 6:05.005, Colby went 6:05.909, and Bates went 6:05.999. The Mule's second-place finish earned them a spot in the grand final where they finished 6th behind MIT.
The third varsity included Nate Dunn '27, Charlie King '29,
Garrett Leonard '29,
Shankara Rao '29,
Sumner Groves '28,
Tyler Merritt '28,
Timothy Enos '29,
Alex Furber '29, and Sawyer Dillion '28. Their event included 10 teams and was a two-heat format with the top three of each heading to the grand. The Mules finished second in their heat, between Tufts and Williams. The times were: Tufts: 6:15.921, Colby: 6:18.719, and Williams: 6:21.013. Colby finished 5th in the grand final ahead of Bates and behind Williams. Unfortunately, Williams flipped the script on Colby in the afternoon.
The fourth varsity with
Leon Lee '29,
Atticus Coyne '29, Josh Bradshaw '28,
Henry Evans '28,
Ian Zhou '28,
Dan Steber '27,
Sam Mulcahy '28,
Doug DeNatale '28, and
Theo Ornstein '28, put on a show in their final and finished 5 of 7.
Colby returned to Maine and turn their attention now towards next weekend when they return to Worcester for the National Invitational Rowing Championships where they with compete for the NESCAC championship and IRA automatic bids.
Image Credit: Nicole Miller
