When Boston University's lightweight women left Lake Quinsigamond last year, head coach Malcolm Doldron was satisfied that his women had raced to their ability. But finishing fourth in the Women's Sprints finals was not where he wanted his team to be this year.
Throughout the season, BU's lightweight's have made a point of seeing that it did not happen again, including notching a win over defending IRA Champion Stanford on the Charles River in early April and moving into second in the national collegiate coaches' poll.
Sunday, BU did not leave Worcester and the 2018 Eastern Women's Sprints with anything but a sense of accomplishment. The Terriers' women battled Princeton University the length of the race in a drenching downpour to capture the Grand Final and take the trophy back to the DeWolfe Boathouse.
"These girls worked incredibly hard for this," Doldron said. "Last year we came to this regatta and the racing went as well as we hoped. But we're smiling today. We're excited about it. There are a few more weeks left (in the season), so we'll see if we can get some more speed out of it and put on a show at the IRA."
If BU continues the way they have been this season, the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in June could very well be "a show." Especially since Wisconsin will have a say in the outcome.
Wisconsin bobbled the start in the varsity eight according to head coach Dusty Mattison, but still managed to win three of the four lightweight women's events and successfully defend the Women's Sprints' Lightweight points title, topping BU for the overall women's prize by one point.
"The Sprints points trophy is one of our big goals for the year, always," Mattison said. "We have a pretty large team and we want everyone to contribute, and so for us that's huge. For this year, we just really worked on being together, to work together. That's been our motto this year and it's obviously paying off.
"We have some work to do in the varsity eight," she said. "They said they had a decent race, the start was a little shaky, but it sounds like their sprint is picking up a little bit and now we have to string together a really fast race."
Also, defending the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges' Women's Sprints Championship was Harvard-Radcliffe's open weight squad. It was their fourth-consecutive Sprints title and the 10th win in the history of the program.
"This is pretty big moment for us," said head coach Liz O'Leary. "It's a competitive league that we're in, and to be able to come here and have such good racing, morning and afternoon, it's really terrific."
Harvard won the varsity eight, second varsity eight, the varsity four, and took third in the third varsity eight and second varsity four. Also, having a strong afternoon in Worcester was Dartmouth College, which was second in the varsity eight and varsity four, and won the third varsity eight final.
Rutgers University also left Sprints with a few medals, claiming bronze in the varsity eight, silver in the second and third varsity eight, and winning the second varsity four.
"This regatta gets better and better, and more and more competitive," O'Leary said. "It's really cool to see Rutgers here pushing so hard, and Dartmouth, and everybody pushing in all of the races. It's very high quality racing."
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|