WORCESTER, Mass. – The 2018 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Rowing Championships were held on Saturday at the Donahue Rowing Center on Lake Quinsigamond. Mount Holyoke saw its two crews finish sixth in each of their races, while overall, Wellesley College dominated wins in all four events on the day for the victory.
It marked the Blue's eighth consecutive conference title and ninth in program history, earning the NEWMAC's automatic bid to the 2018 NCAA Division III Championship at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Fla. Wellesley will represent the NEWMAC for a ninth consecutive year at this year's NCAA Championships.
Wellesley's sweep of the Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight, Third Varsity Eight, and Fourth Varsity Eight races helped the Blue clinch the Florence Jope Smith Cup, awarded annually to the school with the highest number of points from the overall results at the NEWMAC Championship.
Wellesley, who has now won the overall points award for eight straight years, finished first with 44 points. The Blue were followed by WPI in second with 30 points. Smith College was third with 22 points, followed by Simmons in fourth with 16 points, Coast Guard in fifth with 12 points, Mount Holyoke in sixth with eight points and Clark in seventh with four points.
The Blue also swept the major awards with Kelsey Campbell (Broomfield, CO) being named 2018 NEWMAC Rower of the Year and Sydney Stento (Boise, ID) tabbed as the 2018 Coxswain of the Year.
Join the Wellesley duo on the NEWMAC All-Conference first team were teammates Meg Babikian (Belmont, MA), Liz Shumway (Eden Praire, MN), as well as Christine Hovermale (Alameda, CA), Marlies de Jong (Huntington Beach, CA) and Kinsey McNamara (Chelmsford, MA) of WPI and Lucy Jensen (River Forest, IL) and Julianne Eppley (Greenville, PA) of Smith.
The NEWMAC All-Conference second team was made up of WPI coxswain Madison Healey (Atkinson, NH), Coast Guard's Marissa Marsh (Vienna, VA), Jacquelyn Dilley (Steialcoom, WA), Simmons' Samantha Kelsey (Salt Lake City, UT) and Veronica Bennett (Pottstown, PA), Mount Holyoke's Elizabeth Hazen (Brookline, MA) and Ariya Lawson (Washington, DC) and Halley Glier (Shelburne, MA) and Emily Ladda (Farmington, CT) from Clark.
The Blue captured the varsity eight in a time of 7:07.298 with the host Engineers crossing the line in a time of 7:10.662. Smith took third (7:23.686), followed by Simmons, Coast Guard, Mount Holyoke (7:47.820) and Clark. It was a wider margin of victory in the second varsity eight, which featured the same order of finish, as Wellesley handed in a 7:22.929 compared to WPI's 7:31.655. For Mount Holyoke, the crew posted a time of 8:18.938.
The Lyons lineup for the varsity eight saw coxswain Zoe Zelkowitz, Halee Mahoney (S), Hannah LeBlanc (7), Sharlow Hitchcock (6), Elizabeth Hazen (5), Mira Rosenkotz (4), Lainie LaRonde (3), Ariya Lawson (2) and Emma Taylor (B).
In the second varsity eight, the lineup was coxswain Genesis Rocha, Sabina Morris (S), Molly Aslin (7), Gabrielle Spano (6), Irina Mara (5), Casey Roepke (4), Grace Remillard (3), Kate Dutilly (2) and Paloma Cruz (B).
Mount Holyoke returns to action next Saturday, traveling back to Lake Quinsigamond to compete in the 2018 New England Rowing Championships.
Portions of the release provided by WPI Sports Information. Photo of the NEWMAC All-Conference Second Team featuring Hazen and Lawson courtesy of WPI Sports Information.
