Men’s Novice Crew Continues Rapid Improvement
Smithfield, R.I. – The Massachusetts Maritime Academy crew team continues to improve on its times as the season draws to an end, with the men's novice team showing particular growth. At Saturday's Bryant University meet, the men's varsity and novice teams finished neck-to-neck in second and third, while the women's varsity was third.
The Buccaneers were paired with Endicott College in the men's race and, with Gulls entering only one boat, both the Maritime varsity and novice quads raced. Endicott took first at 7:01.32, but the varsity boat of Nathanael Costa, Nicholas Mirabile, Timothy O'Neill, Quincy Smith, and Ethan Logan was less than 24 seconds behind at 7:25.14. Costa and Logan, both juniors, were the only upperclassmen in the boat, which featured two freshman in Mirabile and Smith.
Not to be outdone, the novice four came in at 7:44.77 despite a course misdirection, which was still the second-best of the campaign. The all-freshmen crew consisted of William Nolan, Seth Lapriore, John Carey, Jacob Awalt, and cox Eric Higgins.
"As Endicott had only a men's varsity boat, our novice joined the men's varsity four event," explained Alex Machi. "They finished a strong third, just behind their teammates from the varsity squad, despite being incorrectly directed to take a course that was slightly longer than the others."
The young women's squad, of which senior Brianna Caissie is the only upper-class member, once more shaved off seconds from its final time as it was pitted against Bryant and Endicott, which finished ahead of the Bucs in that order.
Caissie was joined by McKenzie Hartman, Hana Haskell, Patria 'Cat' Swan, and Heather Gaughan in the quad, which crossed the finish at 8:20.49, its second-best finish of the spring season.
"Our women continued to show improvement in this, our penultimate competition of the spring season," noted Machi. "With a strong, consistent rating provided by Brianna Caissie, the women's varsity managed to eat into the time advantage of second place finisher Endicott had on us last weekend when we met them on the Merrimack River in Lowell, reducing the differential by 12 seconds.
"I'm looking forward to our rowers having the opportunity to put together their best racing of the year next Saturday," concluded the Crew skipper.
The final race of the spring season is the New England Rowing Championships on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. next Saturday. Make sure to bookmark www.mmabucs.com and get the inside scoop on Facebook and Twitter @mmabuccaneers. Plus, check out our new Instagram @massmaritimebuccaneers.
Gabriel Fidler, Sports Information Associate
Race line-ups and finish times:
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