April 26, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laura Williamson
(413) 585-2703

Crew Participates in Inagural Malden River Spirit Regatta

Northampton, MA: Smith crew raced Tufts, Wellesley, and Simmons at Tufts University's new course on the Malden River. Due to the narrow course only two teams could race at a given time.

Racing against a more experienced Wellesley crew, the Pioneers second novice boat was behind, but managed to cross the finish line at 8:00.7 while Wellesley caught a boat stopping crab twice to finish with a time of 8:07.7. In the boat's second race, the second novice eight posted a second place finish to Simmons (7:44.3) with a 8:23.7 finish.

Smith's first novice boat first faced Wellesley, falling behind 7:21.3 to 7:32.3. In its second outing the boat finished second to Tufts (7:29.7) with a time of 7:38.2. The boat looks forward to a rematch this coming weekend at the New England Rowing Championships in Worcester, MA.

The Pioneers second varsity eight came off the line and pushed past a sharp Tufts boat, winning by 3.2 seconds (7:04.22, Tufts 7:07.44). Swinging back to the starting line, they then faced a fresh Wellesley boat, finishing 1.6 seconds behind Wellesley (7:06.2, Smith 7:08.88).

The Smith varsity eight boat led Tufts at the 1500 meter mark. Tufts went on a strong charge edging Smith by less than a second (Tufts 6:57.1; Smith 6:57.8). Rowing back to the start, Smith next faced Wellesley. Although the Pioneers had a strong second half of the race they were unable to pass Wellesley taking a loss by 2.2 seconds (Wellesley 7:04.9; Smith 7:07.1).

Smith will participate in the New England Rowing Championships next Sunday, May 4 in Worcester, MA.