Bates women’s rowing team repeats as national runner-up

GOLDEN RIVER, Calif. — The Bates College women’s rowing team repeated its ground-breaking feat of a year ago on Saturday, taking second place behind five-time repeat champion Williams at the NCAA Division III Women’s Rowing Championships. The Bobcats matched last year’s women’s rowing team for the highest team finish by any Bates squad at an NCAA championship.

For the second straight year, Bates received a silver-medal performance by the first varsity eight boat, while the 2V8 boat also finished higher than any other second varsity eight in the field save for Williams.

Bates 2 competed in the Petite Final, 15 minutes before the Grand Final at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center, and finished in fourth place out of six boats in a time of 7:06.02, just 2.48 seconds behind Washington College 1 for third place and ahead of the 2V8’s from Ithaca (7:10.06) and Trinity (7:13.41).

In the Grand Final, the Bates 1V8 stood in second place at every 500-meter interval of the 2,000-meter course at Lake Natoma. Bates couldn’t make up enough ground on Williams’ 1V8 in a final sprint, but like Friday’s elimination heat, the boat was able to maintain a slight lead over Williams’ 2V8 and held that boat off to keep the Ephs from sweeping the top two spots in the race. Williams 1 won in 6:43.81, followed by Bates at 6:48.66, Williams 2 at 6:49.02, Trinity 1 (6:52.94), Ithaca 1 (6:55.87) and Puget Sound 1 (7:04.43).

Bates is headed by captains Danica Doroski ’10 (Wayne, Pa.), Alison Frye ’10 (Duxbury, Mass.) and Ellen Patterson ’11 (St. Louis Park, Minn.). Other team members expected to make the trip include sophomore Haley Sive (Glenville, N.Y.), junior and two-time Pocock All-American Rebecca Waldo (Dracut, Mass.), sophomore Elizabeth Sonshine (Short Hills, N.J.), sophomore Amy Jacks (Baltimore, Md.), junior Phoebe Reed (Brooklyn, N.Y.), senior Lindsay Thomson (West Hartford, Conn.), sophomore Allison DiSalvo (Lowell, Mass.), junior Davina Dukuly (Lowell, Mass.), first-year Amanda Goss (Bainbridge Island, Wash.), sophomore Kelsey Dion (Truckee, Calif.), junior Emma White (Bainbridge Island, Wash.), junior Hannah Richardson (Concord, Mass.), first-year Catherine Tuttle (Pittsford, N.Y.). sophomore Caroline Webb (Tiburon, Calif.), junior Nora Collins (Kensington, Md.), first-year Elizabeth Bowling (Greenwood Village, Colo.), first-year Carrie Dillaway (Woodbridge, Conn.) and first-year Victoria Zapack (Charlotte, N.C.).

Doroski, Frye and Thomson plan to walk at Commencement back on campus in Lewiston Sunday morning at 10 a.m.

Friday Recap

Bates women’s rowing team’s first varsity eight fought off runner-up Williams’ 2V8 as well as rival Trinity’s 1V8 in the third and final elimination heat on Friday morning, as the NCAA Division III Women’s Rowing Championships got under way at Lake Natoma.

Bates’ 2V8 finished off the day by taking first place in the Petite Qualifier.

Bates 1V8 led Williams 2V8 by a slim margin at each 500-meter juncture of the 2,000-meter race, and both boats overtook Trinity in the second 500 meters. Bates timed in at 6:41.10, with Williams 2V8 at 6:42.02, Trinity 1V8 at 6:47.98, Wellesley 2V8 at 7:04.53, Mary Washington 1V8 at 7:12.88 and Puget Sound 2V8 sixth at 7:21.47. Three of the top four times in the preliminary heats were registered in the third heat.

Entering the championship, Bates’ 1V8 ranked fourth in Division III by the College Rowing Coaches Association/US Rowing, with Trinity at No. 3.

As the heat winner, Bates advanced automatically to the Grand Final, joining the other two heat winners, Williams 1V8 and Ithaca 1V8.

Bates’ 2V8 also fared well, taking fourth place out of five boats in Elimination Heat 2 in a time of 7:05.47, trailing only three high-quality 1V8’s in Ithaca (6:48.63), St. Lawrence (6:55.19) and Wellesley (6:55.34) and well ahead of St. Lawrence 2V8 (7:13.67). Bates 2V8 moved on to the Petite Qualifier at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon. Bates was in control throughout the race: neck-and-neck with Ithaca’s 2V8 after 500 meters, the 2V8 pulled slightly ahead at the halfway mark and extended the lead over the final 1,000 meters, finishing in 7:11.06. Ithaca 2 was second in 7:14.72, followed by Trinity 2 (7:16.64), which edged Wesleyan 2 (7:18.31) for the third and final automatic berth in Saturday’s Petite Final.