Colby Claims 2003 Women's Rowing Title
CAMDEN, N.J. - The Colby College
women's crew is headed back to the NCAA Championships and this time
the Mules have no doubts about going. Colby earned the automatic
qualifier - the only automatic bid in Division III in the country -
by being the top finisher among all New England Small College
Athletic Conference schools at the Eastern College Athletic
Conference (ECAC)/National Invitational Rowing Championships (NIRC)
Sunday on Cooper River.
Colby will be one of six Division
III schools to race in the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis May
30-June 1. The Mules finished second in the country last year at
the NCAA meet. The rest of the crews who will race Colby in the
NCAA meet will be announced Tuesday.
Williams College, the defending
national champs, won the automatic qualifier last year. That forced
the Mules to sweat out an at-large bid. Colby's varsity eight made
sure that wouldn't happen this year by finishing in fourth place in
the Grand Final at the ECAC/NIRC meet. No other NESCAC team made
the six-boat final, assuring the Mules of the automatic qualifier.
Colby had a time of 7 minutes, 9.33 seconds over 2,000 meters in
taking fourth in front of Ohio State (7:13.36) and Holy Cross
(7:17.75).
Gonzaga won the Grand Final in
6:56.21 and were followed by University of New Hampshire (7:01.27)
and Wellesley (7:01.44).
Seniors Emily Allen (Washington,
D.C.), Eleanor Boyce (Haines, Alaska), Vivienne Ho (New Britain,
Conn.), Leah Robertson (Newton, N.J.), juniors Laura Mistretta (New
York, N.Y.), Andrea Piekarski (Inverness, Ill.), and sophomores
Leah Hagamen (Deerfield, Mass.), Megan Loosigian (Exeter, N.H.) and
Anne Szender (Seattle, Wash.) made up the Colby varsity eight.
Colby finished second in its heat to Washington College in
advancing to the semifinals. The Mules then took third in the first
semifinal and had the sixth-best time of the two heats to qualify
for the Grand Final for the first time in school history.
Williams won the Petite Final
(places 7-12) in 6:59.77. Trinity College was second to the Ephs in
7:03.07. In the Third Level Final (places 13-18), Bates College
finished in fifth place out of six boats.
The Trinity women's junior varsity
eight took second place in the Grand Final in 7:23.93. Colby
finished in fifth place in 7:38.42 and Bates was sixth in 7:49.28.
. In novice eight racing, Trinity took third place (7:21.92), Colby
was fifth (7:28.5) and Tufts took sixth (7:36.78) in the Grand
Final.
