Aside from the varsity women, Hamilton also entered a novice womens 8 in the varsity race. Despite the fact that they were racing competition with much more experience, the novice boat did very well. They finished a very respectable 32nd, beating 6 veteran crews. The boat consisted of: Coxswain Sarah Britton, Stroke Suzy Belmont, 7 Brie O’Reilly, 6 Kate Pallin, 5 Danielle Massee, 4 Megan Swanby, 3 Beth Starker, 2 Kate Brandli, and bow Julie Matheny.

Boston, MA
October 19, 2003

The start of the fall racing season for the Hamilton College Men’s and Women’s Rowing teams fell on a weekend marked by gusty winds on Saturday, and scattered showers on Sunday. After nearly a month of training, the rowers finally had a chance to gauge their speed against traditional rivalries at the 5 Kilometer Head of the Erie. Organized by the Rome Rowing Club as a fundraiser, the Head of the Erie was held out of the Hamilton College boathouse on the Erie Canal in Rome, NY. Being the only race scheduled for the fall season on the Hamilton home course, the rowers had the opportunity to showcase their boat-moving abilities in front of a crowd of Hamilton fans.

The format of the regatta split the racing up into two days – small boat racing on Saturday and large boat racing on Sunday. Normally, the team doesn’t have the opportunity to enter many small boats into races because of time and transportation limitations. Taking advantage of the location of this race, however, Hamilton Crew entered 15 singles and a pair. The fleet of singles put out by Hamilton dwarfed the number of boats entered by the competition which was composed mainly of area clubs and a few college entries.

In the Men’s Collegiate Singles, the four Hamilton entries found themselves in a race by themselves so they looked toward each other for competition. Chris Martin-McNaughton eventually prevailed in a time of 22:24. Pete Coxeter finished 2nd, William “Axtell” Arnold finished 3rd and Ernesto Medina-Gomez rounded out the field in 4th. The Women’s Collegiate Single saw Anne Kurtz win in a time of 26:53 with Alexis Castrovinci second in 30:34 and Becky Benham in 3rd with a time of 32:17. According to the winner, Anne Kurtz, aside from nearly hitting the first mile marker in the race everything went smoothly. On her margin of victory, Kurtz commented, “I don’t know how that happened. I just felt fine and dropped the hammer.”

The Men’s Open Single was an event that garnered much hype and excitement in the week preceding the event. The race featured three top Hamilton rowers; Kevin Doyck, Josh Huling and Henry Chicaiza; a former Hamilton oarsman and current rival, John Adams, who now rows out of Rome Rowing Club; and Hamilton Crew assistant coach, Tom Wines. In the end, Kevin Doyck won in a time of 21:07. Doyck could not afford to take any easy strokes in his victory as he was closely pursued by Adams and Wines who finished with times of 21:53 and 22:00 respectively. Huling and Chicaiza rounded out the field in 4th and 5th place with times of 23:12 and 24:08. After the race, Doyck, who is also the captain of the Men’s team, noted that the race lived up to expectations. “Before the race I knew that I would have tough competition. I’m just glad that I was able to prevail through a really strong headwind,” commented Doyck. Chicaiza threw in his two-cents about the racing saying, “I’m just glad that Kevin beat the asst. coach.”

The Women’s Open Single proved to be a tough race for Captain Kristen Dillner, the lone Hamilton entry. The race was won by one of the top lightweight women scullers in the country, Jana Heere. Dillner finished in 3rd with a time of 26:12 and with this to say about her experience, “my race was long and the wind was just killer.” The Women’s Novice Single race was won in a time of 25:41 by Kalin Jaffe.

In the Masters sculling races, Head Coach Mike Gilbert and Assistant Coach Catherine Gilbert showcased their skills as they each finished second in the men’s and women’s categories. Mike Gilbert’s time was 24:01 and Catherine Gilbert finished in 25:37. While the two were just off their peak fitness level from their competitive days, they each displayed the finer points of technique as they rowed past the crowd.

Despite the lack of competition in some of the events, the Saturday racing was by and large a very positive experience. Coach Mike Gilbert was pleased with the racing, noting that he was pleased to know that the large majority of his team had the competency to scull well enough to race. This skill is not something that most collegiate rowers learn while at college. In fact, other coaches in attendance commented to the Hamilton rowers that they were very impressed that collegiate rowers could scull as well as the Hamilton rowers did. Rower Henry Chicaiza summed up the day best, stating that the day was, “a good start to the fall season.”

On Sunday, September 28th the small boats were put away in favor of the larger boats that collegiate teams traditionally compete in. Joining Hamilton College on the Erie Canal were Colgate University, Ithaca College, St. Lawrence University, United States Merchant Marine Academy, and Cazenovia College.

The first event of the day was the Women’s Varsity 4 event. A Hamilton lineup consisting of Kalin Jaffe, Kim Aber, Kristen Dillner, Alexis Castrovinci and Amelia Conlon crossed the line in 4th place in a time of 21:10. The race was won by Colgate in a time of 20:07. In the Men’s Varsity 4, Hamilton stroked their way to a second place finish in a time of 18:30. Colgate proved victorious in a time of 17:51. The Hamilton boat was coxed by Cambridge Peters and rowed by Keven Doyck, Pete Coxeter, Jamie Grifo and Axtell Arnold.

In the Women’s Varsity 8, Hamilton put out a lineup with Amelia Conlon, Coxswain; Kalin Jaffe, Stroke; Becky Benham, 7-Seat; Kristen Dillner, 6-Seat; Alexis Castrovinci, 5-Seat; Courtney McBride, 4-Seat; Lisi Krainer, 3-Seat; Anne Kurtz, 2-Seat; and Kim Aber, Bow. Starting in front of Ithaca, Hamilton held them off for about 1200 meters before Ithaca was able to put together a move to pass them. The rower’s attention was then directed towards holding off a charging Colgate boat. Colgate made a strong move in the middle of the race making up some ground on Hamilton. The Hamilton rowers then responded with a strong push of their own. Unfortunetly in the end, their time was 5 seconds short of beating the Colgate boat. In the final rankings, Hamilton finished in 7th place with a final time of 19:16. The Ithaca B boat won the event in a time of 17:45.

The Hamilton lineup for the Men’s Varsity 8 race consisted of Cambridge Peters, Coxswain; Kevin Doyck, Stroke, Kosta Popovic, 7-Seat; Josh Huling, 6-Seat; Pete Coxeter, 5-Seat; Axtell Arnold, 4-Seat; Henry Chicaiza, 3-Seat; Chris Martin McNaughton 2-Seat; and Ernesto Medina-Gomez in bow seat. Hamilton started the race in front of the Colgate B boat and was able to hold them off, beating them by 24 seconds. 6-seat Josh Huling reflected after the race was over that, “Colgate started the race with a strong move and made up considerable distance on us. However, we kept our cool and after the Colgate boat began to tire we really began to pull away by bringing up the stroke rate and the pressure.” With this calm and collected effort, Hamilton finished 3rd overall behind the Colgate and Ithaca “A” boats in a time of 16:27. Colgate won the race with a time of 16:00.

The Women’s novice team entered an eight and a quad into the races. The eight rowed down the course with 2 people alternatively sitting out and stabilizing the boat as the rowers are still in the process of mastering the sport. Despite only rowing 6 people at a time, Hamilton finished 2nd place in the novice event behind St. Lawrence and beating Cazenovia. The quad (a sculling boat) also did well picking up valuable racing experience while competing in the varsity event. The Men’s novice team followed suit from the Women’s novice squad by rowing only 6 people at a time and finished their race in 2nd place, behind a more experienced Merchant Marines Academy squad.