There are some sports that as students we simply can’t attend, and rowing falls into that category. The Women’s team just finished their fall season and it was a memorable one. The season started off with a team win at the Head of the Hudson Regatta in which both the Collegiate Eight and both the Collegiate Four boats placed top three in their respective events. The Varsity Eight “B” boat earned Liberty league honors for their impressive performance.

As the fall season went on, all the boats on the team kept producing, and both the varsity four and novice eight won their own races at the Head of the Genesee regatta in Rochester, NY.

The next event, the Head of the Charles regatta, which is the largest 2-day regatta in the world, takes place in Cambridge, MA. Hosting 11,000 athletes, 1,900 boats, and 61 events it is the Penn Relays of rowing.

Placing 21st in an inspiring 27-boat field on the final day of the regatta, the ladies finished the three mile course on the Charles River with a time of 17:47.866, one minute and 21 seconds behind the winning boat from Bates College.  Senior and team veteran Ellie Napoli had this to say after the competition, “unfortunately because our sport is so weather dependent, we don’t always get out on the water as much as we’d like. But with that being said, it was a huge to pull together as five women to come in and compete at one of the largest regattas on the east coast.”

Not winning in sports does not mean that an individual or a team took steps backwards, and in this case it actually set up the ladies for a clutch finish at the Head of the Fish Regatta in Saratoga Springs, NY. The Varsity Four “A” boat medaled with a third-place finish, while all other boats finished within the top 10. “Not saying winning is everything, but coming home with hardware on the weekend definitely made training through the week easier this fall. Finishing third at the Head of the Fish Regatta, among some of the biggest competition we see was a great way to head into the off season,” Emily Ross ’20 said. 

The Lady Saints return in March where they will be competing in Florida for preseason training, before returning home for four competitions throughout the spring semester and ending with the Liberty League Championships.