The women's rowing team finished the first half of their season in Boston at the Foot of the Charles Invite last weekend.
The invite was tough on the Bulls, as Buffalo claimed no top spots from any of their boats.
Floating on the Charles for Buffalo were four Varsity Four boats, a Varsity Eight boat and a Novice Eight boat.
The Varsity Eight boat finished just behind third place Syracuse with a time of 14:21.5.
Participating on the Varsity Eight boat that rowed itself to a fourth place finish out of a total of nine boats in the race was freshman coxswain Tarynn Weightman, sophomores Lindsay DiCosimo and Megan Bayley, freshman Jacklyn Postulka, junior Shenita McLean, sophomore Patricia Arcuri, freshman Brittany Ronald, junior Kelsey Tretter and senior Ewelina Kotowska.
Brown University took the top spot while Boston University earned second place ahead of Syracuse and Buffalo.
Meanwhile, the four Varsity Four boats rowed in a race that consisted of 58 total entries. UB saw its "A" boat finish in 13th place. The boat's crew included senior Melina Dicosimo and juniors Kate Garofalo, Cathleen Streicher, Tara Rudkoski and Britt Marshall.
The "A" boat rowed extremely well and posted a time of 14:57.1. Brown claimed its second win of the day with a time of 14:15.1.
The other three Varsity Four boats had times that resulted in places of 25th, 37th and 43rd. Outside of the varsity races, Buffalo's Novice Eight boat finished 12th of 33 boats in their respective race.
Although the finishes were not exactly what the Bulls had in mind, head coach Rudy Wieler did see some bright spots.
"I believe that our Varsity Four raced very well," Wieler said. "I also think that our Novice Eight raced well also."
Wieler had a different outlook on his Varsity Eight and other varsity boats.
"The other crews, they raced comfortably," Wieler said. "They seemed to have left something on the table."
While the Foot of the Charles Invite does mark the end of the women's fall schedule, it does not mean the end of their season. Wieler asserts that his team must make improvements over the winter in order to succeed in the spring portion of their season.
"We have to continue to improve upon our strength training," Wieler said. "We have to get in the gym and build up our strength as a team. We also need to improve on our aerobic base. A better aerobic base leads to better endurance."
Wieler also suggested that the Foot of the Charles Invite taught his team something about other squads.
"We must learn to race better against better competition," Wieler said. "In our spring season, we are going to face a lot more higher ranked opponents and we need to learn that we can match up with them."
The Bulls will hibernate in the gym over the winter. The next time they splash their boats down will be their Spring Training session.
The session takes place in Oak Ridge, Tennessee from March 6-16, which includes a regatta against Louisville and Duke. It will provide an early test for Wieler to see how his team will do against those "higher ranked" opponents he discussed.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
