The women’s crew team came out strong for their season-opener regatta at the Head of the Riverfront in Hartford, Conn., on Sunday. In the women’s eights, the 1v was the fastest of the Div. III and NESCAC schools, placing second with a raw 4k time of 13:30:062, just 0.609 seconds shy of beating the University of Connecticut (UConn) 1v boat.
In the same event, the 2v took eighth place with a time of 14:16:092.
Three entries from the College also competed in the women’s fours through sweltering heat in the afternoon. Many of those in the morning races doubled back for these ones, including everyone in the A four boat. The A four placed second behind UConn at 14:07:438, while the B four and the C four took seventh and 17th place, respectively.
The Ephs are following a successful spring season in which the team placed second at NCAAs. “We’re coming off a really high performing and good energy season … and so coming into this fall, we’ve been bringing that energy forward,” said Claire McDonald ’26, three-seat of the 1v.
“We’ve been doing a lot of intense work both on the water and in the weight room,” she added. In addition to big lifts, the team has been putting in time on the erg, diving into a 6k fitness test right as the season began, according to McDonald.
The team is relatively young. Roughly half of the rowers are first-years, most of whom walked on this year. These new members have stepped up, said McDonald.
“As a senior, it’s very cool to see how each of [the first-years] shows up on race day and what that brings to our team,” co-captain Carolyn Fortin ’26 said.
Since Sunday’s event included a diverse set of competitors, members of the team also expressed excitement at the prospect of racing against new competition, such as Div. I schools like UConn and the University at Albany.
“It’s really fun getting to race against Div. I teams because we have something to prove but also nothing to lose at the same time,” McDonald said. “We don’t normally get to race that kind of competition, and so it’s exciting to have something new.”
The team capitalized on this opportunity. According to McDonald, the goal for the regatta was simply to set the tone for the rest of the season and test out what they had practiced in preseason training. The results of their rigorous training showed early in the race as the team quickly found its rhythm.
“Our first thousand meters of the race were looking incredible,” McDonald said. “We came out flying.”
Additionally, since the 1v was the first up in the interval start of the race, the boat was able to focus on its own performance and avoid the distraction of other boats. McDonald said they zeroed in on the calls of coxswain Ariana Oppenheimer ’26, who encouraged the team, shouting, “Race the clock and beat our own.”
The 1v took this to heart and beat last year’s record time on the same course, according to McDonald.
Similar to the 1v, the 2v boat also had a strong 1,000-meter start, according to coxswain Ayanna Keshav ’28. The boat managed to stay in front of Trinity’s 2v, which was tight on their tail throughout the race.
“It’s definitely challenging to go into a race as the B boat, racing not only our own 1v but other teams’ 1vs, including those of Div. I teams,” Keshav said. “Our goal was to hold our own and not be afraid to unleash.”
While the team found many positives during their season opener, the work has just begun, Fortin said.
“We could have held onto some of our technical focuses a bit more in the middle of the piece and sharpened our sprint at the end to find some higher, more effective rates,” Fortin said.
The team viewed this first regatta as a way to shake off “expectations, worries, and jitters,” McDonald said. In future races, they hope to stay composed enough to build and maintain a sustainable rhythm after the first 1,000 meters, she added.
Discussing the 2v, Keshav echoed her teammates’ analysis. “We need to trust that we can maintain that fight when the current hits, when the load feels heavy, and when the lactic acid is really kicking in, and, in fact, take some of our strongest strokes in that moment,” she said.
In training, the team will focus on their stamina, according to McDonald.
“Every piece we do, every stroke we take, every time we’re in the weight room, every time we’re on the erg, we’re developing a really strong aerobic fitness base to take us through the winter and then into the spring,” she said.
The women’s crew team will have a chance to build off its momentum as they face off against Smith this Saturday in the Go For the Gourd Regatta in Hadley, Mass. That same weekend, the novice rowers will be taking on Vassar at Williams’ very own Lake Onota.
