Freshman Chet Bickhart, freshman Kyle Hayes, junior Jake Rita, junior Kyle Sammon, sophomore Zach Maguire, freshman Andrey Lanahan, freshman David Legatta and senior Nick Walchonski practice on the Lehigh River in Allentown on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. The team will compete in the Knecht Cup on April 11 and April 12 in West Windsor, NJ. (Chris Barry/B&W Photo)
After completing the Murphy Cup with successful results, the Lehigh men’s and women’s rowing teams are prepared to bring the same energy going forward.
This past Saturday, the teams performed well at the Murphy Cup in Camden, New Jersey, with the men’s eight and four boats reaching the grand finals and the women’s varsity eight boat reaching the petite finals.
“We had a really good week of practice, so I felt pretty confident about how we were going to do,” sophomore rower Karen McGraw said.
Despite the harsh weather conditions characterized by powerful winds and extremely rough waters, both the men’s and women’s rowing teams were able to push through and come out strong.
The women’s varsity eight team advanced into the petite finals and ultimately came in fifth place with a time of 7:02.99. They wound up right behind Hamilton College, Connecticut College, Bates College and Rutgers University, who came in first through fourth place, respectively.
“We did a lot of hard work at practice that prepared us for anything that could happen,” freshman Amanda Slominski said. “So even though the weather elements were pretty tough, we had a lot of experience during practice in those conditions.”
On men’s rowing, the freshman eight team saw success despite it being the first time that this lineup competed together. They made it to the grand finals with a solid qualifying time of 6:29.79. In this preliminary round, the freshman team finished in first place. In the grand final, the boat came in sixth place with a time of 6:35.64, just under 30 seconds behind the first place team, Drexel University. The freshman team’s success has rowers excited about the future.
“That was the first time we won anything and did well as a boat together, which is really exciting,” freshman Kyle Hayes said. “Being able to make the grand finals, after only practicing with that lineup once, shows a lot of potential in the freshman boat.”
The men’s four boat team also performed well, placing in fifth in the grand finals with a time of 7:32.76. Temple University came in first place in this race with a time of 6:58.92.
Looking forward, both the men’s and women’s rowing teams are preparing for their next big competition, the Knecht Cup, which will take place April 11 and 12 in West Windsor, New Jersey. Both teams are optimistic about this competition and are looking to improve upon various techniques in the next two weeks.
“We’ll probably just really focus on working well together and moving the boat as one,” Smolinski said. “That’s what we’ve been working on in practice the past few weeks and I think we could improve on that more.”
McGraw said the team needs to work on staying composed when the conditions aren’t great, as well as keeping calm overall.
Hayes says he has high expectations for the freshman boat in the future.
“We expect a grand final finish at the Knecht Cup for the freshmen boat,” he said.
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