Blue Crew Wins Sixth-Straight NEWMAC Title; Earns NCAA Bid

WORCESTER, Mass. – Wellesley College crew swept all four races en route to the program's sixth-straight New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) championship on Saturday morning on Lake Quinsigamond. Blue Crew's title secures the conference's automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA Division III Rowing Championships in Gold River, California, where Wellesley will make the program's seventh consecutive trip to the national championships.

Wellesley's sweep of the Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight, Third Varsity Eight and Novice Eight races also earned the team the Florence Jope Smith Cup, awarded annually to the school with the highest number of points from the overall results. Wellesley finished the day with 40 points. WPI was second with 28.

Wellesley also swept the major awards as senior Meg Roberts (Kenilworth, Ill.) was named Rower of the Year and sophomore Stephanie Kim (Wellesley, Mass.) was tabbed Coxswain of the Year.  The blue duo was joined on the first team by teammates Lauren Bazley (Issaquah, Wash.) and Grace Howland (Millbrook, N.Y.), Gina Gonzalez-Roundy (Berkeley, Calif.), Kinsey McNamara (Chelmsford, Mass.) and Abigail Sawyer (Uxbridge, Mass.) of WPI and Veronica Bennett(Pottstown, Pa.) and Chelsea Foster (Avon, Conn.).

The second team was comprised of Tara Strauss (Sarasota, Fla.) and Savannah Lyle (Nashville, Tenn.) of Coast Guard, Molly La Pointe (Kennebunk, Maine) and Meghan Ryan (West Point, N.Y.) of Mount Holyoke, Olivia Shaw (Wayland, Mass.) and Gracie Hackenberg (Portland, Ore.) of Smith and Lydia Warters (Simsbury, Conn.) and Sarah Fisher (Teaneck, NJ) of Clark and Simmons sophomore coxswain Clarice Johnson (Norwell, MA).

The Blue, ranked third in the latest CRCA national poll, raced to a time of 6:37.62 to win the Varsity Eight race by just over seven seconds over second place, and tenth-ranked, WPI. The Engineers finished with a time of 6:54.50. Simmons College (6:54.50) and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (6:58.85) followed in third and fourth place. Mount Holyoke College (6:59.09), Smith College (7:00.64) and Clark (7:04.78) rounded out the field in the Varsity Eight race.

The Varsity Eight victory was the exclamation point on a dominating performance by the entire Wellesley team. In the Second Varsity Eight, the Blue clocked in at 6:50.11, outpacing championship host WPI's time of 7:01.79. The Blue and Engineers ran away from the race of the field, with Simmons following in third in 7:10.74. Smith (7:11.80), Mount Holyoke (7:20.03) and Coast Guard (7:24.14) took fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

Wellesley grabbed the title in the Third Varsity Eight race, finishing ahead of the Pioneers with a time of 7:04.90. Smith was second at 7:09.83, while WPI (7:19.23) took third. Wellesley's Novice Eight also opened the day with a victory, topping Simmons (7:33.42), WPI (7:36.46) and Smith (8:16.01) with a time of 7:06.89.

Wellesley will return to Lake Quinsigamond next Saturday, April 30, at 8:00 AM for the New England Rowing Championships.

Wellesley Lineups:

V8
c- Stephanie Kim, 8 - Margaret Babikian, 7- Meg Roberts, 6- Audrey Ellis, 5- Loren Lock, 4- Lauren Bazley, 3- Kathryn Barth, 2- Sydney Dollmeyer, 1- Grace Howland

2V8
c- Sydney Stento, 8- Emilia Ball, 7- Kelsey Campbell , 6- Molly Hoyer, 5- Sahar Ibrahim, 4- Anna Hakes, 3- Olivia Duggan, 2- Olivia Thayer, 1- Katie Livingston

3V8
c- Ginger Simms, 8- Alexandra Rondeau, 7- Annie Schnitzer, 6- Nina McKee, 5- Sloane Rice, 4- Liz Shumway, 3- Alexis Lowe, 2- Sally Ruderman, 1- Emily Ahn 

N8+
c- Alex Klufas, 8- Jocelyn Reahl, 7- Chloey Garza, 6- Anna Gaskill, 5- Sarah Smith-Tripp, 4- Sianna Casey, 3- Alyssa Rivera , 2- Mia Caglieris, 1- Julia Wainwright