After anxiously awaiting the start to its season, the Massachusetts rowing team dominated the field over the weekend at the Head of the Oklahoma, taking home 12 medals, including four gold, in the two-day event in Oklahoma City.
For the fourth consecutive year, UMass claimed first place in the Open 4x. The group composed of Carly Zanatta, Jill McGill, Sam Kolovson and Krysten Menks clocked in at a time of 16:06.36.
The Minutewomen placed fourth in the top-five of Sunday morning’s Collegiate 1x, led by Zanatta, who took gold with a time of 18:59.93. Closely following her was McGill (second place), Kolovson (third) and Menks (fifth).
UMass coach Jim Dietz said he was happy with his athletes’ performances in the opening weekend’s race.
“The class of scullers is so high and being able to place first, second and third in the same race, with the difference between first and second place being a second, is impressive,” Dietz said. “It makes for a very competitive team.”
On day one Saturday, the Minutewomen started the meet with strong results that would translate over the rest of the weekend. In the Open Lightweight 1x, Zanatta finished in first place with a time of 18:26.32. McGill followed in second place and Menks placed fourth for UMass.
Zanatta and McGill also partnered to take home first place in the Lightweight 2x with a time of 17:16.17, while Kolovson and Menks finished second to make it an all-Minutewomen top-two.
To end the day, the Minutewomen took second and third in the Open doubles 500-meter with times of 1:47.74 and 1:50.12, respectively.
Dietz reflected back on his team’s performance in Oklahoma with high praise.
“(They were) extremely successful results,” he said. “We were really pleased with their times, even though the conditions got worse their times were better on the second day than the first day just because it took some time to get familiar with the boats as well as the race course.
“Overall it was a great weekend for us, we were pleased with the results and had a lot of fun at the same time. We’re hoping to build upon these results and carry this momentum into next weekend’s races,” Dietz added.
UMass heads back to New England this weekend where it will compete in a pair of meets. On Saturday, the Minutewomen enter the Head of the Housatonic in Derby, Connecticut where they’ll face the likes of Northeastern University, University of Rhode Island and Yale University. The Minutewomen will then head to the Seven Sisters Sculling Regatta in Hadley, on the Connecticut River for their only home meet of the fall.
Ryan Ames can be reached at [email protected].
