Williams College Takes Third at Head of the Housatonic
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The Housatonic River looked inviting as the Williams College bus pulled into Indian Well State Park. Head Coach Peter Wells 1979 remarked, "the guys got off the bus and all really showed you wanted to and believed you were ready to race. There was a team-wide attitude of "finally! We get to race!!"
The smiling faces and wonderful foods of their parents' tent greeted the crew. The boats snacks were grabbed and expressions of affection were traded briefly- the boats needed to be rigged.
It then came time for the eights to launch. Each of the crews waded out from the shore and mounted their own racing shell. Warmup routines followed as the crews made their way down to the start. Williams was entered in the Division I event (IRA).
Coach Wells explained: "Racing the Div I category was important and we could have easily used the race as a place to make excuses or to see as an opportunity and say to ourselves: ‘why not be as competitive as these guys?' Again, I thought the attitude was more of 'let's have at them'."
The overcast weather persisted as the wind slowly rose to near-unrowable speed at the start. Soon it was time to begin. The rowers began to accelerate the shell 150 meters from the line until a race official called them on. All the boats were staggered seconds apart.
The Williams 1V was pursued by Yale's 2V. After the start they began to move on Williams, but it was in vain. The Williams crew pulled away and navigated the course 2.7 mile curved course well. Northeastern and Yale slipped away as the Ephs made their way under the cables, a notable landmark of the race.
Williams sprinted early, but the finish line did not seem to be in the expected place, so the crew fought hard through to the finish, an extra 750 m away.
The crew felt good about their performance. Captain Cameron Skinner '10 remarked: "Overall, we are pleased with our finish at the Housatonic, but we realize there are still many gains to be had this week on the water. Therefore, we are really looking to have a good week of practice going into the Charles. If we can have a solid week, our expectations are high."
Joey Kiernan 2011 echoed these sentiments: "The team worked extremely hard this fall and it definitely showed in our races. There is no doubt that we are now the team to beat in the NESCAC."
The 2V and 3V also performed quite well. Wesleyan's 1V was handily beaten by the 2V while Coast Guard's 1V only edged them out by 12 seconds. UMASS Amherst bested them by one second. The 3V beat Wesleyan's 2V and showed the depth of the program.
The fours races took place a few hours later at 3:15. The Williams fours were not particularly fast, finishing 7th and 8th and 10 seconds apart, but the training was well worth it. Coach Wells commented on the relatively poor performance, "ultimately we need to be a program where we always see we can get in any boat, anytime and race well, so there is work to be done here." The team is searching for a more unified technique to achieve this goal.
Next week the crew will race at the Head of the Charles, the biggest race of the fall season. Williams will seek to defend its winning title from rival Trinity College.
