SARASOTA, Fla. – The Wellesley Varsity Eight (V8+) and Wellesley Second Varsity Eight (2V8+) each advanced to the Grand Final at the 2022 NCAA DIII National Championships at Nathan Benderson Park on Friday morning.
Wellesley's 2V8+ began the morning with a first place finish in its opening heat, coming in at 6:51.975. The Blue held a two second lead over Williams at the 500 meter mark before extending the lead to nearly four seconds at the halfway point. The 2V8+ kept its pace and finished ahead of Williams (6:57.007) who also advanced to the finals tomorrow morning.
Advancing to the Grand Final from the Second 8+ first heat was Bates (6:54.598) and Ithaca (6:57.006). Tufts, Pacific Lutheran, WPI, and St. Mary's (MD) will battle in the repechage later today at 3:48 PM with two remaining spots in the grand final.
The V8+ placed second in its morning heat to advance to the Grand Final on Saturday after rowing a 6:40.810. The Blue finished the first 500 meters in 1:39.339 and held a slight lead over Williams (1:39.643) and Bates (1:39.735). Bates picked up its pace and eventually took a lead at the 1,000 meter mark and eventually completed the heat in 6:40.082, which was less than a second ahead of the Blue. Williams took third at 6:44.722 and Pacific Lutheran placed fourth at 7:08.768, as both schools head to the afternoon repechage.
WPI (6:41.567) bested Ithaca (6:41.622) in the V8+ first heat and each moved forward to the Grand Final. Behind was Tufts (7:00.291) and St. Mary's (MD) (7:09.906) who will compete in the repechage at 4:00 PM.
The Blue Crew will look to capture its second national championship tomorrow morning with the 2V8+ Grand Finals at 10:48 AM and the V8+ following at 11:36 AM.
Wellesley NCAA Lineups:
V8+: C - Isabella Santos (West Hartford, Conn.); 8 - Anya Hanitchak (Andover, Mass.) ; 7 - Katie Ball (Hanover, N.H.); 6 - Kaity Severin (Newton, Mass.); 5 - Olivia Gorman (Bristol, Conn.); 4 - Anneka Hallstrom (Ann Arbor, Mich.); 3 - Catie Moeser (Madison, Wis.); 2 - Kaylee Liu (Acton, Mass.); 1- Emma Anghel (Windham, Maine)
2V8+: C - Colette Kennedy (Mill Valley, Calif.); 8 - Adeline Van Buskirk (Hingham, Mass.); 7 - Zipporah Cohen (St. Paul, Minn.); 6 - Anastasia Brooks (Dallas, Texas); 5 - Gaya Krishna (Houston, Texas) ; 4 - Cora Barrett (Tewksbury, Mass.); 3 - Cricket Liebermann (East Montpelier, Vt.); 2 - Eleanor Antezana (Seattle, Wash.); 1 - Emma Dean (San Francisco, Calif.)
Alternates: Rachel Shrives (Harvard, Mass.), Amelia Lee (Hong Kong, China ), Katherine Welsh (Cohasset, Mass.)
