Petite Final Results
GOLD RIVER, Calif.—The William Smith varsity eight turned in a third place showing in the petite final of the NCAA Division III Rowing Championship on Lake Natoma today.
The Herons—
Abbie DiPalma,
Claire Brown,
Maggie Smith,
Alayna Beebe,
Jamie Billington,
Emily Desmery,
Tess Wiggins,
Tallarie Thurgood, and
Alaria Pizzo—conserved their energy in the first 500 meters of the race, moving through the first benchmark in fifth place about two seconds off the pace. William Smith moved up into third place by the midpoint of the race thanks to the second fastest second 500-meter split.
Over the second half of the race, the Herons kept in contact with conference rival St. Lawrence, but were unable to overtake the Saints. William Smith also held off Bates' second varsity eight down the stretch.
The Herons logged a time of 7 minutes, 3.98 seconds, 2.48 seconds behind St. Lawrence. Wellesley won the petite final in 6:56.61. The Bobcats were fourth in 7:06.02 followed by Ithaca's second varsity eight and Trinity's second varsity eight.
"I think our season has had a lot of challenges and a lot of unexpected developments" Head Coach
Sandra Chu said. "I could not have asked for a crew that took better advantage of every opportunity that was in front of them. This boat, in all of its iterations, has done an amazing job of making sure that they advanced, not only their own personal growth in the sport, but the team's growth in the sport.
"One of the things that I'm really looking forward to is seeing how this experience impacts our team in the fall."
Williams won its fifth consecutive national championship after its varsity eight finished first and its second varsity eight took third in the grand final.
The Herons were making their eighth NCAA Championship appearance and first as an at-large since the NCAA instituted a Division III championship in 2002.