Women's Rowing | 9/28/2014 10:25:00 AM

GENEVA, NY – The RIT women's crew squad opened the 2014 fall rowing season on Saturday at William Smith College's Challenge on the Canal. Participating crews included the University of Rochester, Ithaca College, and St. John Fisher College. The Tigers fielded two varsity eights and one novice eight, finishing third in the varsity eight event, second in the JV eight race, and third in the novice eight race.
 
The Tigers varsity posted a competitive time of 17:27.9, while Rochester finished four tenths of a second ahead of them and William Smith winning by 3.8 seconds. Seated in the Happy Day from bow to stern sat Katie Baldwin (Phelps, NY/Midlakes), Laura Alderfer (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge High School), Sarah Foggett (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder), Erin Coppola (Rochester, NY/Our Lady of Mercy), Taylor Blackwell (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Sutherland), Lindsey Schwartz (Rochester, NY/Gates-Chili), Amy Guthrie (Essex Junction, VT/Essex), Brittany Dzugas-Smith (West Babylon, NY/Landmark), and Erin Loughran ().
 
The JV eight finished second with a time of 18:47.9 behind Rochester who finished first with a time of 18:27.1. William Smith finished third with a time of 18:58.2 and Ithaca fourth with a time of 19:12.1. Seated in the Kate Louise for the Tigers from bow to stern sat Michelle Kwong (Oakland Gardens, NY/Bronx Science), Jill Bastidas, Claudia Downs (Buffalo, NY/Nardin Academy), Kali Elahi, Hayley Bartkus (Philadelphia, PA/Central), Phoebe Hurd (Raymond, ME/Windham), Chelsea Coates (Sanborn/Niagara Wheatfield), Arielle Weinstein (Athens, NY/Coxsackie-Athens), and Sarah White (Bay Village, OH/Bay).
 
Racing for the first time, the novice eight finished third overall with a time of 21:05.2. Rochester finished first, William Smith second, Rochester B fourth, and William Smith B fifth. Seated in the Bob Gordon for RIT from bow to stern sat Alison Kahn (), Cathy Altenburger, Rachel Tassoni (), Hayley Richardson (), Amelia Rothfuss (), Colleen Ryan (), Victoria Cron (), Claire Thomas (), and Amy Helenek ().
 
Women's Varsity Coach Cassidy Goepel commented after the racing, "We are off to a good start. All three boats raced well today – very competitively – we got the first one under our belt and the girls are looking forward to getting faster in the weeks ahead. Spending time in the sculls has given them a new level of confidence in their rowing. We are definitely becoming a crew to watch out for."
 
The Tigers are right back in action Sunday, as they race in Ithaca at the Cayuga Sculling Sprints.