They may be lightweights, but they made a solid showing against stiff competition from around the world.
From the starting gun to crossing the finish line, the women's lightweight rowers made a splash over the weekend, placing ninth overall in a field of 14 other crew teams. The Head of Charles regatta in Boston, MA this weekend sported some of the best rowing teams in the nation as well as a few other top competitors from other parts of the globe.
The team led by junior coxswain Sarah McCann and rowers junior Diana Minardo, sophomores Andrea Patterson, Maureen Jones, Regina Yazbeck and Jessica Lau, seniors Beth Gaworecki and Stevie Feig, and junior Diane Passenant finished with an adjusted time of 18:33.443 in Boston over the weekend.
Top finishers included an overseas opponent from "The London Training Center," who finished with a time of 16:15.442. The top collegiate team was Princeton, who completed the race with a time of 17:18.602.
"Our lightweight crew was the only crew that participated in the Charles regatta," said head coach Rudy Wieler. "There were a total of fourteen entries. We ended up ninth in the field."
However, their ninth place finish overall was a little misleading. International rankings showed the team doing much better.
"Three of the crews in front of us, London Training Centre, the lightweight national team from Canada and the Riverside, a club crew from Boston and Queen's, a university from Canada, do not compete in our category during the season," Wieler said. "Thus, we actually placed sixth in our US intercollegiate category in a field of ten US collegiate crews."
While Wieler was happy with the middle of the pack finish, both he and the team see the need for improvement.
"Top half would have been what we would have liked," Wieler said. "But for all but one of the girls in the crew, it was their first venture in the Charles and thus a good experience for this young and improving group of lightweights."
The Bulls now head into a tough stretch of the season. They will head to Philadelphia to face contention at the Head of the Schuylkill on Saturday Oct. 27. From there, they will head to Princeton to compete in the Princeton Chase on Sunday. Finally, Buffalo will finish the fall portion of the season in Syracuse at the Syracuse Invitational on Saturday, Nov. 3.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
