Men’s crew journeyed to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., last Saturday to compete in the New England Rowing Championships (NERCs). The Ephs sent 1v, 2v, and 3v boats — but only the 1v finished its Grand Final before winds picked up and the sky opened, unfurling a classic New England spring shower.
The 1v finished second in its preliminary heat — with a time of 6:09.729 — thwarting Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Boston College, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, tailing Bates by just a thread. Its second-place finish, while enough to propel it to the final, still came as a slight surprise.
“They caught us unaware,” Quinn Carroll ’27, bow seat of the 1v, said. “We had no idea Bates was going to be such a formidable boat.”
“We led in the first half and then [Bates] … as we call it, ‘walked through us,’” Jack Wagner ’27, third seat of the 1v, added. “Still good enough to qualify for grands, but it definitely shook us.”
Leading up to NERCs, the 1v was undefeated, with head-to-head victories over Ithaca, Wesleyan, and Tufts. While the 2v and 3v have struggled throughout the season, they managed to win their heats convincingly on Saturday: Both boats gapped their respective second-place finishers by 15 seconds.
Chris Pohlmann ’27, second seat of the 2v, was optimistic about his boat’s performance, though disappointed by the cancelations. “I think we rowed a composed race,” he said. “We had everything in control, and we were ready to progress on and win the final, but it didn’t happen.”
Brij Howard-Sarin ’26, bow seat of the 3v, emphasized the boat’s intense preparation as the cause for its win. “We’ve put a pretty heavy emphasis on defining a shared identity and being a little bit more aggressive with how we approach our effort,” he noted.
Winds worsened over the course of the day, dragging up boat times and causing the aforementioned cancelation of the 2v and 3v final races.
In the final, the 1v finished in fifth place behind Trinity, Wesleyan, Bates, and Tufts. The rough lake conditions heavily influenced the team’s finishing time of 7:27.42, which was nearly a minute and a half slower than in the heat that morning. “We took a couple waves over the bow,” Caroll said. “I got completely drenched.”
Myer Liebman ’26, eight seat of the 2v, took this weekend’s disappointing rain-out in stride. “Dealing with weather is just part of our sport, and we are excited to head back to Lake Quinsigamond next weekend for more racing,” he said.
The team will race at the National Invitational Rowing Championships on Sunday, which double as the NESCAC Championships. This regatta will determine whether the team qualifies for the IRA National Championships, which begin on May 30.
The team is focused on consistency as they enter the final stretch of the season. “At this point we’re not going to get that much better as athletes,” Howard-Sarin said. “Now it’s about putting the pieces together, keeping our head in the boat.”
Wagner has a clear vision for the team moving forward. “I think taking a loss like that kind of solidifies what you probably already knew — which is that it’s going to take more work, more sharpness, more focus, more dedication, more discipline, to be in championship shape by June.”
