BOSTON, Mass. – The Simmons College first Varsity Eight was named the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference Women's Rowing Boat of the Week for the week of March 21-27. 

The Sharks V1 placed second to Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the Charles River Racing Series #1 on March 26 in their first race of the spring season, which also included United States Coast Guard Academy and Smith College. 

Senior stroke Chelsea Foster (Avon, Conn.) helped power the varsity eight for Simmons to a time of 7:12.9 in the 2000-meter course to finish behind MIT, which crossed the finish line at 7:06.4. The Sharks were able to put a really good push into the Engineers 1V crew at the 1000-meter mark, but finished six and a half seconds behind. 

Foster was joined by senior Sophie Stone (Greenland, N.H.) in the seven seat, followed by sophomores Ronnie Bennett (Pottstown, Pa.), Phoebe Knox (Scituate, Mass.), Erica Bartle (Arlington, Mass.), Erin Lilienthal (East Lyme, Conn.), senior Jess Randolph (Concord, N.C.) and classmate Jill Bolduc (Methuen, Mass.) took over the bow seat. The shell was directed by junior coxswain Olivia Smiaroski (Northfield, Mass.).

The Sharks almost finished a full 10 seconds ahead of Coast Guard Academy.

Simmons will compete again this weekend when they take on MIT and Bates on Saturday, April 2 and will be in action again the following day at the Wellesley Invitational. Both regattas will take place on the Charles River.