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The Spectator
Men's Crew looks forward to ECAC Championship
by Ayush Soni '11Sports Writer
The men's crew team continued their season with first, an individual race versus RIT, and then a strong showing in the New York State Championship.
The Continentals hosted Rochester Institute of Technology on April 25 and came in hoping for a win. Despite coming off a loss against St. Lawrence a week earlier, Hamilton had showed strong improvement as the season continued. The Varsity 8 seemed to have clinched a victory after defeating the RIT boat with a time of 6:18.81 to 6:30.93.
However, before they were able to celebrate, the boat had to race again as RIT called for a re-row due to a Styrofoam cup getting caught in the fin of their boat. The mental and physical burden of having to race again did not fair well with the Hamilton crew, as they fell in the re-row 6:03.93 to 6:22.57.
Unfortunately, after the initial win, the regatta went downhill. Hamilton's Second Varsity 8 lost to both RIT boats and the Varsity 4 was also defeated. While the crews were able to enjoy a great sunny day, only RIT came away feeling good.
After losing to RIT, Hamilton moved on to the New York State Championship, where they fared much better and even won an award. The Continentals raced on both May 2nd and 3 at Whitney Point. Out of 27 teams that raced, Hamilton College came in fifth place and won the Most Improved Team prize after marking up 65 points. That points total also put them in a tie with St. Lawrence, who the team lost to two weeks earlier. The weekend was especially great for the Second Varsity 8.
After a relatively disappointing season, the boat performed very well at States, coming in fourth overall. Scot Bixby '11 coxed the boat and the rest of the lineup from stroke Rafael De La Rosa '12 at Matt Seaman '12, Matt Poterba '12, Adam Minchew '12, Ian Thresher '12, Sam Hinks '11, Andre Zakoworotny '11, and RD Eisenhart '11.
Unfortunately, the Varsity 8 was not as competitive as they would like to have been. After racing very well throughout the season, the boat came in only 11th overall. Ricky Bottini '10 was the coxswain for the Varsity 8. The rest of the boat from stroke was Gibson Hoyt '12, Ben Sholl '09, Jeff Cardoni '11, Willy Cowles '09, Jonathan Wilson '09, Chris Visentin '12, Andre Matias '11, and Tim Belden '10.
Despite some disappointing results in the last two weeks, Hamilton showed flashes of success and potential. This week's upcoming ECAC will determine the season for the boats and if they do well, previous failures will mean nothing.