New York Collegiate Rowing Championships
May 3rd and 4th, 2003

Conditions: Strong quartering/tailwind on Saturday and perfect rowing conditions on Sunday.
Comments: All heats occurred on Saturday and all finals where on Sunday. The Men's Varsity 8 and Men's Novice 8 each placed 7th overall. The Women's Varsity 8 finished 12th overall. All three boats earned the highest finished Hamilton has accomplished at this regatta. The Novice men earned an invitation to the ECAC National Invitational Rowing Championships where they will face some of the fastest freshmen crews in the country. The only other NESCAC schools to earn invitations were Williams and Trinity.

In the 6th annual meeting of the Gillman Cup and Plate, Hamilton College matched up against long time NY State rivals, Union College and St. Lawrence University. After traveling to St. Lawrence Friday evening and arriving at the St. Lawrence race course in the early morning, the determination was made that the conditions were unsuitable for rowing, due to the strong winds and rough water. Instead of having the regatta at St. Lawrence, it was decided that the teams would travel to Hamilton College's boathouse in Rome, NY where the Gillman Cup and Plate would then be contested.

The Women's Varsity 8 was the first race of the regatta. The 8 was coxed by Julia Morgan and rowed by Liz Lamdin, Alexis Castrovinci, Shana Weinberg, Kate Wardwell, Liz McPhillips, Kristin Dillner, Kalin Jaffe and Becky Kessler. After starting evenly with the two other boats, Hamilton eventually pulled away and won convincingly by 11 seconds over St. Lawrence and 32 seconds over Union. For their efforts, the Varsity Women were awarded the Gillman Plate.

In the race for the Gillman Cup, the Varsity Men's 8 lined up against Union and St. Lawrence. In the previous five meetings Union had walked away with the Cup, but Hamilton was optimistic about their chances this year. Off the start, Hamilton and Union stayed fairly level with St. Lawrence falling behind early. However, as the race progressed Hamilton was able to steadily pull away from both boats and win easily with a margin of 11 seconds. The boat was coxed by Lisa Schaaf and rowed by K.P. Hall, Steve Larson, Adam Schayowitz, Pete Coxeter, Josh Harding, Tom Goolsby, Henry Chicaiza and Chris Martin-McNaughton.

In the Novice 8 races the Hamilton Men matched up against Union. With a quick start, Hamilton established an early lead and was able to increase it throughout the race winning comfortably with a margin of 21 seconds. The Novice Women lined up against both Union and St. Lawrence. After falling behind during the first 20 strokes, the boat regrouped and kept Union within reach and finally made a hard push for them at the end during the sprint. While they did close a considerable distance, ultimately they were not able to reel St. Lawrence in and finished 3rd behind both Union and St. Lawrence.

The 4's races also provided some exciting action between the three teams. The Men's Varsity 4 race saw Union pull away from Hamilton in the last 500 meters to win by 5 seconds with Hamilton beating 3rd place St. Lawrence by 6 seconds. The Women's Varsity 4 race was by far the closest race of the day. All three teams were neck and neck with Union making a last second push to win by 3 seconds over St. Lawrence and Hamilton. St. Lawrence was able to prevail over Hamilton by a scant foot, or .o5 seconds. The Mens' Novice 4 saw St. Lawrence "A" pull away from Hamilton in a tightly contested race to win by 5 seconds and the Women's Novice 4 saw St. Lawrence prevail by 23 seconds over Hamilton.

Hamilton vs. Colgate, Drexel

Saturday, April 13, 2003
Lake Moraine, Hamilton

Conditions: Quartering headwind throughout the racing. Course was 1500 meters long.

In the second race of the season, both the men's and the women's team faced off against Colgate with the women also competing against Drexel University. In the first race of the day, the Hamilton Womens Varsity 8 took third behind both Drexel and Colgate. The Varsity boat consisted of-Julia Morgan, Liz Lamdin, Alexis Castrovinci, Becky Benham, Kristin Dillner, Shana Weinberg, Liz McPhillips, Kalin Jaffe and Stephanie Godleski. The Mens Novice 8 event went off next with both boat fairly close together over the first thousand meters before Colgate made a push and pulled away to win by 7.4 seconds.

In the Mens Varsity 8 race, a Hamilton boat of Kevin Hall, Steve Larson, Adam Shayowitz, Pete Coxeter, John Adams, Tom Goolsby, Josh Hulling and Chris Martin-McNaughton finished behind Division I Colgate by 13 seconds. The Hamilton Novice Women finished behin both Colgate and Drexel but showed an improvement from the week before as they tune their skills for the more important New York State regatta. The last race of the day was the Mens 4+ event. Dan Horowitz coxed Henry Chicaiza, Dan Nelson, Chris Knorr and Kosta Popovic to a thrilling victory over Colgate. After being down almost two lengths at the 500 meter mark, the Hamilton 4 put forth a ferocious sprint and edged out the Colgate 4 over the very last strokes to win the race by just less than one second.

On Saturday, April 5th, Hamilton Crew traveled to Ithaca, NY for their first regatta of Spring sprint season to face off against Ithaca, William Smith, Pacific Lutheran, and Hobart. Ithaca, William Smith and Pacific Lutheran are perennially in the top 10 of Division III women's rowing, and Ithaca and Hobart are consistently top New York crews. Hamilton Crew went into this race knowing the challenge they would face with this top competition. However, the crew was also eager to measure up and see where they stood.

In the Men's Varsity 8+ race, Hamilton lined up against Ithaca College. The Hamilton team consisted of Matt Baum (cox), Kevin Hall, Steve Larson, Adam Schayowitz, Pete Coxeter, Josh Huling, Tom Goolsby, Henry Chicaiza, and Chris Martin-McNaughton. In what was a close race until the last 500 meters, Ithaca went on to win at a time of 5:46 with Hamilton finishing just 15 seconds behind (6:01). In the Varsity 4+ race, Hamilton entered the freshman four of Lisa Schaaf (cox), John Adams, Colton Riley, Chris Abbott and Alex Kaufman against fours from Hobart and Ithaca. Hobart won with a time of 6:34 with Ithaca in second with 6:56 and Hamilton in third with a time of 7:10.

The Women's Varsity 8+ had two dual races, one against Pacific Lutheran University and the other against Ithaca College. Rowing in the first race for Hamilton were Chloe Hensold (cox), Liz Lamdin, Alexis Castrovinci, Shana Weinberg, Kate Wardwell, Liz McPhillips, Kristen Dillner, Kalin Jaffe, and Becky Kessler. Pacific Lutheran was able to take a quick lead off the start and managed to hold off the Hamilton boat to win with a time of 6:42. Hamilton pulled in with a time of 7:05. The second race saw the same boat, this time coxed by Julia Morgan, facing off against the home team, Ithaca. Ithaca won with a time of 6:52 over Hamilton's 7:11. In the Women's JV 8+, a Hamilton boat that was a mix of varsity and novice rowers went up against the Ithaca JV and the Ithaca Lightweight boats. The Hamilton boat of Meggie Ito (cox), Jessica Wolinsky, Dana Kirchoff, Katie D'Agostino Becky Benham, Megan Malone, Anne Kurtz, and Amber Gillis finished 3rd with a time of 7:45. The Ithaca JV finished in 7:12, with the Lightweights finishing in 7:16.

In the Men's Freshman 8+, Hamilton boated Dan Horowitz (cox), Chris Abbott, Kosta Popovic, Andreu Viader Valls, Dan Nelson, John Adams, Alex Kaufman, Axtell Arnold, and Jamie Grifo against Ithaca. Ithaca made a big move in the second 500 meters and went on to win at a time of 6:06. Hamilton crossed the line with a time of 6:22.

The Women's Freshman 8+ saw Meggie Ito (cox), Jessica Wolinsky, Dana Kirchoff, Katie Cameron, Lisi Krainer, Courtney McBride, Amanda Bennett, Anne Kurtz and Alice Peterson face off against Ithaca and William Smith. Ithaca won with a time of 6:49 followed by William Smith at 6:55 and Hamilton with 7:28.

Overall, the race was a very positive experience for the team. Racing the top competition is a necessary step for the team as it continues its ascent to the top of New York State rowing teams. With four weeks left before the New York State Collegiate Championships, the team members now know exactly how much speed they need to pick up to make it to the top.

The race scheduled for Sunday, April 6th against Colgate and Marist was cancelled, due to freezing temperatures and strong winds at Lake Onondaga at Syracuse. Instead, there will be a race scheduled against Colgate and Drexel for next Sunday (April 13) at a location to be determined.

In the pre-season collegiate rowing polls, Hamilton College was ranked at 15th nationally in the Division III category. The rankings are based upon surveys completed by Division III coaches and reflect the performance of the crews from the fall and last year.

Women's NCAA Division III Varsity Eights
Team (1st-Place Votes) Points
1. Williams College (6) 175
2. Ithaca College (1) 170
3. Colby College 153
4. United States Coast Guard Academy (2) 145
5. William Smith College 143
6. Smith College 132
7. Rochester Institute of Technology (1) 114
8. Tufts University 101
9. Mt. Holyoke College 90
10. University of Puget Sound 88
11. Wesleyan University 86
12. Washington College 79
13. Pacific Lutheran University 73
14. Wellesley College 69
15. Hamilton College 66
16. Worcester Polytechnic Institute 65
17. Trinity College 57
18. Bates College 52
19. Vassar College 50
20. Connecticut College 49
Others receiving votes: Simmons College 41, Marietta College 17, Willamette University 16, Bryn Mawr College 15, Lewis and Clark College 14, Chapman University 12, Mary Washington College 10, St. Lawrence University 9, Johns Hopkins University 7, Union College 1, and University of Massachusetts at Lowell 1.