Crew Concludes Season at New England Championships
WORCESTER, Mass. – Thirty-nine schools, including regional powerhouses like Boston College, Williams College, Bates College, and Bowdoin College, as well as Massachusetts Maritime Academy - converged on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Massachusetts this past weekend for the New England Rowing Championships. The Buccaneer women's quad finished in eight and the varsity men in sixth, while the novice men's four was ninth.
"MMA athletes had a specific goal in mind as they launched from the docks at Regatta Point Park Saturday morning: improve on our results against crews we'd met earlier this season," explained Head Coach Alex Machi.
Both the women's quad and the men's novice foursome rowed in time trials in the morning. Against a tough lineup that included Bowdoin, UMass-Lowellm, and others, the Maritime women finished eighth of eight at 7:41.74, just behind Franklin Pierce at 7:15.71. Bowdoin was first at 6:01.49.
When the women returned to the water for the Petite Final, they faced off against Franklin Pierce. The Ravens fielded an experienced squad against a four that featured only one upper-class rower in Brianna Caissie. The remaining crew, McKenzie Hartman, Hana Haskell, Patria Swan, and Heather Gaughan were no match for FPU, which recorded an 8:40.5 to Maritime's 9:32.4. As a result, the Bucs settled for eighth overall.
Meanwhile, the men's novice quad also had a morning race, taking on a brutal field that featured Bowdoin and the Universities of Vermont and New Hampshire. The first-year boat of William Nolan, Seth Lapriore, John Carey, Jacob Awalt and cox Eric Higgins record a 6:41.05 for ninth of the nine boats, with the first eight all within a 17-second span between Bowdoin at 5:41.5 and UNH at 5:57.96.
The Navy-and-Gold drew Connecticut and UNH in the Petite Final and was third in the group to maintain a ninth-place finish. The quad rowed to an 8:15.35, its third-best mark of the spring.
Finally, the men's varsity skipped the preliminaries and faced off against six other universities, all of which were separated by less than one minute. Bowdoin earned a clean sweep of men's and women's varsity and secondary fours with a 6:40.46 finish, while the Bucs completed the race at 7:39.60, finishing sixth of six.
"All Maritime boats had great rows, concluded Machi. "Both our novice men and varsity women—who competed in morning heats, then again in afternoon finals—put together great back-to-back efforts to close out the spring season.
"Our varsity men [was] without the services of standout two-seat and co-captain, Nathanael Costa, due to military obligations. Still, all crews performed at their best and exceeded goals they'd laid out in advance based on previous matchups. It was a great finish to a wonderful season."
Race line-ups and finish times:
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WV4+ (Women's Varsity Four with coxswain)
Bow – McKenzie Hartman '20
2-seat – Hana Haskell '21
3-seat – Patria 'Cat' Swan '20
Stroke – Brianna Caissie '18
Coxswain – Heather Gaughan '21
WV4 Time Trial Order Entry Result
1 BOWDOIN 6:01.486 2
UM LOWELL 6:16.608
3 CONN COLLEGE 6:23.765
4 BRYANT 6:29.855
5 MERRIMACK 6:31.721
6 ENDICOTT 6:44.783
7 FRNKLIN PIERCE 7:15.709
8 MASS MARITIME 7:41.736
Petite Final –
Franklin Pierce - 1st - 8:40.5
Maritime - 2nd - 9:32.4
MMA earns 8th place overall
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MN4+ (Men's Novice Four with coxswain)
Bow – William Nolan '21
2-seat – Seth Lapriore '21
3-seat – John Carey '21
Stroke – Jacob Awalt '21
Coxswain – Eric Higgins '21
M2V4 Time Trial
Order Entry Result
1 BOWDOIN 5:41.500
2 WENTWORTH TECH 5:45.124
3 TRINITY 5:47.681
4 WPI 5:48.857
5 VERMONT 5:52.631
6 CONN COLLEGE 5:52.639
7 CONNECTICUT 5:56.053
8 UNH 5:57.964
9 MASS MARITIME 6:41.047
Grand Final –
Univ. of Conn. - 1st - 7:17.1
UNH - 2nd - 7:25.1
Maritime - 3rd - 8:15.4
MMA earns 9th place overall
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MV4+ (Men's Varsity Four with coxswain)
Bow – Patrick Wall '19
2-seat – Nicholas Mirabile '21
3-seat – Timothy O'Neill '20
Stroke – Quincy Smith '21
Coxswain – Ethan Logan '19
Grand Final –
Bowdoin - 1st - 6:40.5
Wentworth - 2nd - 6:44.8
UVM - 3rd - 6:49.2
Bates - 4th - 6:53.4
Endicott - 5th - 7:07.7
Maritime - 6th - 7:39.6
MMA takes 6th place overall in New England