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The Spectator
Hamilton Crew Rocks the Boat
by Dylan Wulderk '13Sports Writer
November 06, 2009
Hamilton's crew teams finished their fall seasons last week in Philadelphia at one of America's most historic rowing sites—the Schuylkill River. The men's varsity eight finished in seventeenth place at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta held on October 24, while the women's team finished twelfth in their race.
Lily Ericsson '10 explained the team's effort saying, "We thought it was a strong race. We were competing against mainly Division I teams. The competition was really tough, and based on the opponents we faced, we almost surprised ourselves with how strong of a row we had."
The women's championship eight finished the 2.5 mile course in 15:52.24 with Sophie Breene '12 at coxswain, Ericsson at stroke and Holly Bailey '12 in the bow seat.
The novice eights took seventh out of twenty nine teams and featured Kelly Burke '13 as coxswain, Rachel Johnson '13 at stroke and Ally Fried '13 in the bow seat.
Anisha Bhanot '13 was coxswain for the fours along with Izzy Cannell '11 at stroke, Spencer Gulbronson '12 in the bow seat, Alice Dannenburg '11 in the three seat and Catherine Prescott '12 in the two seat. The fours finished twelfth of 23 teams with a time of 19:41.9633.
The men's team also had a strong showing finishing seventeenth in the club eights with a time of 14:33.06, a minute behind the winners. They also took part in a 2.5 mile course. The varsity eight boat consisted of Ricky Bottini '10 at coxswain, Gibson Hoyt '12 at stroke and Tim Belden '10 in the bow seat.
In the novice four race, the boat was composed of Noah Ford '13 at coxswain, Jake Lucas '13 at stroke and Michael Kahn '13 in the bow seat.
Earlier in the month, the two teams competed in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. The men's collegiate four team finished thirty-fourth after being penalized a minute for an interference penalty, while in the lightweight fours race Hamilton finished in thirteenth place.
The women took twentieth place in the collegiate eights race, finishing ahead of Colby, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts and Wesleyan. The collegiate fours finished in twenty-fifth place while rival Trinity College took first place in that race. The club fours race saw a fourty-third place for the Continentals.
Hamilton hosted the Bridge-to-Bridge Head Race on the Erie Canal at the beginning of October. The women's "A" boat finished in third place in their race while the "B" boat finished fourth in their race.
The men finished their 6.6 km race in first place and setting an impressive distance between them and second place St. Lawrence "A." The men's varsity four finished in second place in their race, as well.
While the fall crew season is now over, expect the teams to be out in full strength for the spring season. The spring season features the New York State Championships for both the men's and women's teams and both teams will be intensely focused on having a strong showing at that event.
Ericsson concluded, "Looking back at the fall, this is the strongest season I've been a part of."