The Massachusetts rowing team competed in a pair of events this weekend, with the freshman squad racing in the Green Monster Regatta and the varsity team in Mercer Falls, N.J., racing in the U.S. Rowing Fall Regatta.
The freshmen had three boats entered in the Green Monster Regatta. The ‘A’ boat finished fourth overall with a time of 16:42, trailing only Dartmouth, Boston College and Northeastern. The other two boats finished 11th and 13th, respectively, out of a pool of 16 boats.
In New Jersey, the Minutewomen partook in time trials on Saturday. They entered 12 boats in the time trials and each boat qualified for the finals, which was on Sunday.
UMass coach Jim Dietz noted that Claudia Caballero Larco was third overall out of 40 scullers in the time trials, which allowed her to take part in the ’A’ final which is for the top six boats in the time trial.
Larco ended up finishing in fifth place in the gold medal final, only 20 seconds out of first place. Her time, 8:26:39, was affected by difficult conditions, which made her have a little trouble dealing with the wind and rough water, according to Dietz.
Despite finishing fifth, Dietz believes that Larco “still had a very respectable performance.”
“The women’s doubles were actually the two best boats that I thought I entered,” Dietz said. “Those boats in the time trails qualified for the ‘B’ level final, which added to our excitement because the inter-squad competition that we have really gets the gals going, because everyone wants to be top dog.
“That was a thrilling race this morning with basically six boats rowing in a dead heat all the way down the course.”
Dietz also believed Taryn Wilson and Emily Mann, who were back in fourth, rowed a really strategically sound race and in the last 500 meters. Radcliffe, who was in the lead at the time, made a mistake which allowed the field to close the gap. Wilson and Mann eventually took the gold.
Dietz was also proud of his women’s pairs, saying, “by the time the pairs raced, the water conditions were really terrible and many of the boats were crabbing.
“However, Rachel Boudreau and Pippa Edwards were actually leading for quite a while, but in the last 500 they got in some trouble and our other boat got past. But, overall we were thrilled with the racing in that our gals really went out and attacking the field.”
Nicole Juul-Hindsgaul and Allanah Rubi-Mooney made up the women’s pair boat that came in fourth for UMass.
In the 2E doubles race, Krysten Menks and Nicole DeStefano took first place with a time of 8:17:28, besting fellow Minutewomen Gabrielle Hayward and Sarah Wiczek by five seconds.
In the 1D singles race, Rebecca Adams took home silver with a time of 9:05:51 as Princeton’s Olivia McShea, who finished the race in 8:45:30, dominated the field.
With this past weekend being the last weekend of the fall season, Dietz is already looking forward to spring.
“Emily Mann and Pippa…are immediately making a contribution to the varsity program. Those kids are coming in and doing just a fabulous job,” he said.
“When you are racing against the Northeastern’s, Princeton’s, Radcliffe’s and Wisconsin’s and you are that competitive at this stage in the season, you know your spring is going to be very good,” Dietz added.
Matthew Zackman can be reached at [email protected].
