Men's Rowing | 4/3/2022 5:06:00 PM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The St. John Fisher College men's and women's rowing teams were back on the Genesee River on Sunday morning for a home race against the University of Rochester and Nazareth College.
The men were first on the water against the UR men's novice 4 and Varsity 4 as the Cardinals took third place, covering the 2k course in 10:09.72.
The women's novice 8 was next where the first half of the race was back and forth. From there, the team had a few off strokes, which allowed Nazareth to open up a lead and finish ahead with Fisher coming in behind them in a time of 9:34.61.
The day ended with the women's varsity 4. Â Fisher's A and B battled back forth for the first half of the race with the A entry ultimately opening up a lead and cruising to a victory in 8:45.59 (A) to 9:12.01 (B) with Nazareth coming in a distant third.
"Despite the cold, wet snow, the water was flat and had otherwise good conditions for racing today," added head coach
Jon Covney. "I was proud of the group for getting in their second race in as many days. We have a young team, but they're a great group and I'm excited to watch them keep improving!"Â Â
On Saturday, the men's and women's teams competed in Saratoga against Skidmore College, Vassar College and Middlebury College on in perfect conditions.
The women's varsity 8 led off the day against Skidmore, Vassar and Middlebury. They held contact on Skidmore and Vassar before they pulled away in the last 750 meters of the race while Middlebury sped out early and crossed the line first.Â
"We're finding the best lineup and will find a lot more speed before the end of the season," continued Covney. "It was a great opportunity to be able to lineup against three other boats on a fully buoyed race course in early April as we've found out Mother Nature can be very unpredictable in the northeast in early spring."
The women's second 8 had a few last-minute lineup changes due to injury, but made their way down the course. Seven of the boat's nine members competed in their first-ever collegiate race. Additionally, it was our coxswains first sprint race as she was in the boat as a rower last spring. For the very limited amount of water time that the Cardinals have had since getting home from their spring training trip, they found ways to take positives from their race and look forward to building upon their performance.
The men's novice 4 featured four student-athletes appearing in their first collegiate race. They have figured out a way to gain confidence through the race, despite a slow start they managed to gradually gain water back on Vassar. Once the team gets more time on the water this group is going to be a factor in races later in the season.
The Cardinals are back in the water on Saturday as they travel to Cayuga Lake to take on Ithaca College.
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