Varsity 8 wins first home meet

The UConn womens’ rowing team hosted its first of two home races this past weekend and won five of six races against Marist and Trinity College. The races were held Saturday morning on Coventry Lake in Coventry. The teams battled the cold, wind and rain in the early morning.

The varsity eight boat won with a time of 7:06.5, with Marist coming in second at 7:09.9 and Trinity in third with a time of 7:13.5. Although she had considered changing lineups after a shaky performance last weekend in New Jersey, coach Jen Sanford-Wendry decided to keep them the same this weekend.

“Due to the lack of practice time last week because of the weather, I put the line ups back to what they were for the past two weeks. This way they were comfortable with how the boat feels since they had many rows together leading into this weekend,” Sanford-Wendry said.

Senior captain Andriel Doolittle said keeping the lineups helped the team this weekend, saying, “Because of the weather last week, we never really settled on a solid lineup that we felt confident with going into the race, and it was important that we got some wins. For the varsity, that lineup has pretty much been together since last spring and it saw some success in both the spring and fall.”

In the second varsity eight, UConn won with a time of 7:15.3 Trinity was second at 7:25.5, and Marist was third at 7:34.7. In the novice eight, UConn won with a time of 7:28, Trinity was second at 7:40 and Marist was third at 7:52.

In the varsity fours, UConn A won with a time of 8:13, Trinity was second at 8:32, UConn B was third at 8:43 and Marist was fourth at 9:04. In the second novice eight, UConn won with a time of 7:57.9, and Marist was second at 8:10.5. In the novice four Marist won with a time of 8:39, while UConn was second at 9:41.

UConn will host UMass this weekend on Coventry Lake, and the team will look to keep up its momentum with more home victories. Doolittle said the weather conditions, though harsh, actually made for smooth sailing as the snow Friday night calmed the water almost to a standstill. Sanford-Wendry also thanked fans and Jonathan the Husky for appearing at the early morning race.

Sanford-Wendry said that while the team did find success in these races, she will continue to tweak the lineups in practice this week. “At this point, it’s becoming a team effort to find the fastest lineup,” Doolittle said.

The match against UMass will begin at 7:30 a.m. Friday, April 6 on Coventry Lake.