SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's rowing team enjoyed a successful outing at the NY State Collegiate Championships this weekend on Saturday. Competitors included clubs and varsity programs of all divisions from across the state. To enhance the level of competition and inter-conference cross referencing, the regatta invites crews from outside NY to compete, while reserving medals placements for NY State crews. 
 
In the Varsity 8+, two crews from each of the three heats advanced to the A, B and C final respectively. Ithaca pushed ahead of Canisius, Iona and the University of Rochester to advance with Bates (who is currently ranked first in the DIII coaches' poll) to the grand final. In the grand, William Smith shot out as the early leader but was eventually reeled in by the field. At the line, it was DI Colgate who claimed the gold in 7:01.4, followed by Syracuse at 7:04.7 and then a tight clump of Bates, Ithaca and Marist at 7:07.8, 7:08.3, and 7:09.8 respectively. William Smith rounded out the final at 7:12.5. Because Bates is an out-of-state competitor, the Bombers rode home with bronze medals and fresh excitement to return to training. The team meets Bates again in 3 weeks at NIRC, and both programs will be looking for ways to grow the .5 sec margin in their favor. The IC crew on Saturday consisted of Caroline Hoskins, Lily Babcock, Emma Hammel, Maggie Farber, Zoe Paradis Stern, Kai Lincke, Ashley Bailey, Samantha Gallagher and Beth Roberts.
 
With 3 heats in the 2nd Varsity event, our 2v crew of Smeena Gill, Anna Capodilupo, Julia DiCostanzo, Emma Thorne, Emmeline Robinson, Calla Bobak, Hope Oliveira, Claire Edwards and Carys Owen also needed to place in the top 2 to advance to the grand.  The Bombers held an easy margin over RIT & Iona to move on to the final with Bates. In the A final, Ithaca hung with the pack for the first 500 before crews started building margins on each other.  In the end, the finish order was Marist (7:16.9), Bates (7:21.3), Smith (7:25.7), William Smith (7:29.3), Colgate 7:30.6 and Ithaca (7:34.3).  The crew was disappointed that William Smith was able to reverse the margin from our opening weekend, but our competition is what pushes us to improve, and the Bombers remain optimistic that we have time to correct course before Liberty League. 
 
The Varsity 4+ was the next race and the IC crew was Kaelyn Morandi, Payton Fisch, Emily Murphy, Sarah Chraibi and Brandi Landis. The Bombers had trouble maintaining connection in the second half of their heat and were relegated to the Petit (B) final after falling to Colgate and Union. In the final, the Bomber crew, who had only been rowing this lineup for a week, executed their plan with greater focus and maturity to finish in 3rd (9th overall) behind Canisius and Vassar. While times are of little importance in rowing due to ever-changing wind and water conditions, margins do matter, and if the Bombers had faced Union again, they would have narrowed the margin from heat to final by 18 seconds. 
 
Ithaca's next event was the 2x, where Melanie Heim and Kathe Ebert faced Dominican, RIT, Clarkson (and the only major cloudburst of the day) to qualify through to the A final. Like the 4+, this crew also felt dramatic improvement in their ability to execute in the final. They pushed to a big lead over RIT B and USMMA but finished in 4th overall, just outside the medal spots earned by Long Island U, Dominican and RIT A. 
 
The Frosh/ Novice 4+ was the first final of the day. With only 6 entries, the Bombers didn't have to conserve anything for the Final-Only event. At the starting line, the coxswain's microphone suddenly failed, leaving Ava Connor (2 seat) to parrot Cameron Silberman's coxing throughout the piece for her crewmates to follow.  The Bombers were undaunted by their technical malfunction & raced their way into 2nd place medals behind Long Island U, besting Canisius, Iona, St. John Fisher and Stony Brook in the process. The rest of the IC crew consisted of Bryanna Mendoza Arias, Maisie Sagaas and Marie Nemeth.
 
The day capped with a few races run in flights that would let athletes hop into secondary lineups for some fun, less-often-raced boat classes. The Bombers had entered the 2-, 4x and 1x events, but a lack of other 1x and 4x entries left us only with the 2-.  After limited practices in this secondary event, the two Bomber entries finished admirably in 2nd & 4th in a field completed by RIT and U of Rochester. 
 
The men's squad did not join in the racing at the NYS Championships this year due to an opportunity to see some fast competition in Worcester, Mass. For a recap of the men's results, please click here. Full NY States Results can be found on Streamline Rowing
 
The next race for the entire squad is on Friday, May 2 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. for the Liberty League Championship, and the automatic qualifying spot for the DIII National Championship on the line.