WORCESTER, Mass. -- The Simmons University crew team's First Varsity Eight placed second at the Clark Invitational this morning on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.
The Sharks turned in a time of 7:01.00 in a tight race with Mount Holyoke College, which won on the 2000-meter course by just 1.3 seconds over Simmons. The Sharks finished over five seconds ahead of Clark University and more than 29 seconds ahead of University of Rochester.
Junior Ally Fecteau (Burlington, Conn.) took over the coxswain duties for the 1V, ahead of Simmons' familiar lineup from the previous day with sophomore stroke Samantha Kelsey (Salt Lake City, Utah) setting the tone ahead of first year Emily Niemi (Santa Clarita, Calif.), sophomore Steffi Gaehde (Brookline, Mass.), senior Peizhu Pam Qian (Beijing, China/Developing Virtue Secondary Girls School (Calif.)), junior Sabrina Belozerova (Newton, Mass.), junior Hannah Dike (Leominster, Mass.), senior Nicole Lee (North Reading, Mass.) and first year bow Maggie O'Byrne (Boston, Mass.).
"The one-V battled all the way down the course, first with Clark, then with Mount Holyoke after fully passing Clark after 1500 meters," said Fecteau. "We narrowly missed first place by 1.3 seconds, but this was one of the most aggressive and fun races of the season, regardless."
The Sharks second varsity finished third in their race with a mark of 7:46.8. Mount Holyoke placed first with a time of 7:30.6. Senior
Melissa Morton (Somers, Conn.) served as the shell's coxswain, followed by first year stroke
Maude Elovitz (Lake Oswego, Ore.), first year
Kat Jones (Methuen, Mass.), junior
Lily Pennington (Watertown, Mass.), senior
Eleanor Pullan (Northampton, Mass.), first year
Jen-Li Barry (Santa Barbera, Calif.), senior
Christine Yu (Plainville, Mass.), junior
Rebecca Ramsey (Jefferson, Mass.) and first year bow
Maya Wyse(Singapore) to keep their lineup consistent for the second straight day.
Morton said, "Two-V had a very solid start today and stayed strong in the first 1500 meters. In the next coming weeks we will continue working on setting a good rhythm and staying competitive through the full 2000 meters."
Simmons placed third and fourth in the fours race with first year
Ginny Strasser (Cambridge, Mass.) directing the quartet of sophomore stroke
April Miller (Newton, N.H.), followed by first years
Anna Boyles (Ridgeland, Miss.),
Jess Banafato (Durham, N.H.) and first year bow
Chloe Janes (Brookline, Mass.) to a third-place showing on a time of 8:48.6, finishing behind first place finishing Mount Holyoke's time of 8:21.00.
"The four today had the best race pressure I've seen this season," explained Strasser. "With a couple of technique adjustments, we'll be holding *and* passing our opponents every race."
"I think that although we had a rough start, we got it together and gave it all we had today," said Jabbarin. "I'm looking forward to doing better in future races".
Simmons will race again on Saturday, April 27 when it competes in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference Championship.
