Results on Row2k.com

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—The William Smith College rowing team battled a swift head current and Liberty League rivals Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College on the Genesee River this morning. The Herons swept all three of their races.

The No. 2 ranked William Smith varsity eight began the day's success by walking out in the first 500 meters. By the 1000-meter mark, the Herons had over a 10-second lead and continued to add to it down the stretch, defeating the No. 15 Tigers by almost four lengths with a winning time of 7:06.83. The varsity eight was powered by Susan Tuvell, Katie Paige, Sinead Reilly, Lauren Blake-Whitney, Caroline DeWeirdt, Alyssa Trebilcock, Libby Hughes, Aly Clark, and Emma Dow

The William Smith second varsity eight got caught by the current at the start and began the race a few seats down. While it took Katie Lehmann, Carissa Boire, Catherine Wolf-Rodda, Morgan Atanasio, Grace Hutton, Alex Belden, Laurie VanBenSchoten, Eliza Orrick, and Morgan Burgess 50 meters to regroup, but once they did, they flew down the course, stopping the clock at 7:25.53, nearly 18 seconds faster than RIT and well ahead of the Cardinals' 1V.

In the novice eight event, the Herons squared off with the Tigers and the William Smith third varsity eight. At the 1000-meter mark, the Heron novices trailed the 3V by about 2 seconds. Coxswain Hannah Glenshaw crafted a flawless race plan which took advantage of the boat's composure and technical skills to aggressively attack during the second half of the race. Glenshaw guided oarswomen Karoline Loretan, Acadia Moeyersoms, Hannah Novak, Sammie Kearney, Margaret Cameron, Nora Burd, Nina Prescott, and Rachel Rosenberg home in 7:41.12, more than 15 seconds ahead of the 3V. RIT was nearly 40 seconds off the pace.

"We are so fortunate that we had the opportunity to race today," Head Coach Sandra Chu said. "It enabled us to place our focus on not just sustaining speed throughout a race but growing and cultivating speed in the second half. Each boat in the program outperformed the goals we set for today which shows me that they are developing even faster than I hoped.

"I'm particularly proud of the composure that the novices showed in their race. I think that they are fortunate to have such a talented coxswain in the seat. Hannah's instincts during racing are spot on and will only bring this crew and our program more success as time goes on."

William Smith is scheduled to race twice next weekend in Worcester, Mass. The Herons will take on No. 4 Trinity (Conn.) on Saturday, April 19 and No. 10 WPI on Sunday, April 20.