Women's Rowing | 4/26/2009 11:18:00 AM

ROCHESTER, NY - The RIT women's crew squad raced on Saturday against Hamilton College. In the last regular season contest for the Tigers, the novice squad recorded their fourth consecutive win and the varsity eight had a solid piece to close out the warm day of racing. The Erie Canal course had no current and a calm wind for the novice eight, picking up to a 5-10 mph tailwind for the remainder of the races.

The novice eight's time of 7:15.11 put them ahead of Hamilton A (7:19.41) and B (7:24.40). The Tigers' line-up was made up of coxswain #Eileen Kobal (Erie, PA/Fairview)#, stroke #Ariel Leitao (Newton, MA/Tabor Academy)#, seven seat #Erin Mooney (Dayton, OH/Oakwood)#, six seat #Erica Gantz (Rosendale, NY/Rondout Valley)#, five seat #Kristina Lozar (Brooklyn, NY/Adelphi Academy)#, four seat #Allison Doster (Syracuse, NY/LaFayette)#, three seat #Anne Wapshare (Blasdell, NY/Immaculata Academy)#, two seat #Emily Burns (Annapolis, MD/Broadneck) and bow (Westfield, MA/Westfield)Samantha Whalen (Westfield, MA/Westfield)#. Coach Fredyne Yust said, “We rowed a more frantic race than we would have liked. We got the result we wanted, but not in the way we know we're capable of. It's a given that we'll see a lot of fast crews at States, and we need to work on maintaining our composure when we're pressured to respond with poise and power collectively.”

Following the novice race, RIT's varsity eight finished second behind Hamilton's 1st varsity eight (7:03.7) with a time of 7:19.99. Hamilton's 2V (7:36.06) was third. The Tigers' line-up featured coxswain #Hannah Westall (Williamstown, NY/Mt. Greylock)#, stroke #Ariel Leitao (Newton, MA/Tabor Academy)#, seven seat Alli LaChance (Pompey, NY/Fabius-Pompey), six seat #Ashley Pastor (Poughkeepsie, NY/F.D. Roosevelt)#, five seat #Kristina Lozar (Brooklyn, NY/Adelphi Academy)#, four seat Alex King (Wilmington, DE/St. Elizabeth), three seat Sam Whalen (Westfield, MA/Westfield), two seat #Erica Gantz (Rosendale, NY/Rondout Valley) and bow (Westfield, MA/Westfield)Erin Mooney (Dayton, OH/Oakwood)#. The Tigers used a strong middle move to derail Hamilton's 2V, pulling away as the Continentals caught an over-the-head crab with 900 meters to go.

The Tigers travel to Whitney Point, NY next weekend, May 2-3, to compete in the New York State Collegiate Championships. Details for Saturday's heats can be found here later this week. The finals are scheduled for Sunday morning.