Seven Members of Blue Crew, Spillane Honored on 25 Year All-NEWMAC Team
WESTWOOD, Mass. - The NEWMAC released the Rowing 25 Year All-NEWMAC Team in recognition of the historic 25th Anniversary season. A total of 18 student-athletes have been recognized from the last 25 years, including current Wellesley College crew head coach Tessa Spillane, former rowers Becca Kimball '14, Meg Roberts '16, Kathryn Barth '17, Kelsey Campbell '18, and Katie Ball '22, and former coxswains Stephanie Kim '18 and Sydney Stento '18. The honored team was voted on by the NEWMAC membership.
Spillane has been at the helm of Wellesley College crew since 2005 and is one of the most decorated coaches in Wellesley Athletics history, claiming the NCAA Divsion III Championship in 2016, 2022, and recently in 2023. Spillane has won 10 NEWMAC Championships, multiple New England Rowing Championships, National Invitational Rowing Championships (NIRC), and the Varsity Eight boat has finished second in its last three appearances at the Head Of The Charles. Spillane is a four-time College Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year recipient, a three-time NIRC Women's Coach of the Year honoree, and has won nine NEWMAC Coach of the Year awards.
Roberts, Barth, Campbell, Kim, and Stento were all a part of the Blue Crew team that won the program's inaugural NCAA DIII Championship in 2016. Ball helped lead Wellesley to its second national championship in 2022.
Kimball earned 2013-14 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-American honors, an honor that Barth, Campbell, and Ball later received. Kimball was also an ECAC All-Star in 2013. Kimball, Barth, Robert, Campbell and Ball have each earned NEWMAC Rower of the Year honors, with Barth holding the distinction of being the only rower in NEWMAC history to win the award twice. Kim was named the NEWMAC Coxswain of the Year on three occasions, the most by an individual in NEWMAC history, while Stento received the NEWMAC Coxswain of the Year award in 2018. All seven Blue Crew members have made the NEWMAC All-Conference First Team at least once, with Kim earning three trips to the team and Roberts and Barth both receiving the honor twice.
Kimball, Roberts, Barth, Kim, Stento, and Ball have all won CRCA National Scholar-Athlete and NIRC All-Academic Team awards in their respective careers and each made the NEWMAC Academic All-Conference Team at least once during their time as a student-athlete.