This year the Colonial Erg Sprints drew in 119 athletes from six different schools, all wanting to show off their winter training efforts. The lower courts in the student rec center filled with rowers and coaches alike all waiting patiently for the first “Sit ready, Attention…ROW!” call to go off. This was their first opportunity to display how much they actually improved since moving indoors.
The women’s side of the put together a strong showing, competing in 5 different events. The first was the Novice Women’s Open event, in which we placed 3rd and 4th by Jessie Viss (7:57.9) and Kelsey Mix (8:07.3) respectively. The next event was the Varsity Lightweight Women, in which Ashley Koontz(8:08.9) placed 2nd. In the Varsity Open Women’s division, we placed 2nd and 3rd, and also had 4 out of the top 7 scores. The final event WMRC women’s squad competed in was the coxswain race, in which Charlotte Dobry, a Varsity Women’s coxswain, took home the gold!
On the men’s side of the house, the novice set the tone for the evening finishing first (Scott Klein – 7:01.3) and second (Marshall Irby – 7:02.0) in the Novice Lightweight Men category. In the Open Novice Men event, William Plews-Ogan pulled a 6:43.0 putting him in 5th place just 1.8 seconds behind a 1st place finish. Moving on to the Varsity Men, Jamie Lewis finished 2nd place in the Lightweight Varsity Men category with a 6:39.4(PR). The last singles event of the day was Varsity Men. With a close battle for position, William and Mary put three rowers near the top of the standings: 4th – Connor Finch – 6:40.8, 6th – Alex Sullivan – 6:42.6 and 7th – Danny Otto – 6:44.9.
The day culminated with the two-person 10k relay event. The team of Jamie Lewis and Ryan Fliss provided the team with another win by finishing in a time of 34:29.7, just ahead of William and Mary Alumni Denton Woodward ’93 and Tom Martineau ’93 (36:41.7).
All together we thought the event went very and well, and are am looking forward to seeing this event grow over the coming years.
Race results are available here.
Winners of these events are rewarded with a golden hammer. WMRC winners are shown below. For more event photos, click here.
