SARATOGA, NY – Williams Women's Crew (WWC) rowed their way to the fastest finish times across all events in the team's first regatta of the spring season. The crews competed against Skidmore, Stockton, Catholic University, Vassar, and Wellesley (the defending national champion).
Days before the race, Skidmore head coach Emanuel Valentin reached out to Williams head coach
Paula Thoms to report that the conditions looked too windy and cold to race. But after WWC missed its first racing opportunity last weekend due to poor conditions, Thoms wanted to do whatever she could to give her team the opportunity to race.
Thoms proposed shifting racing from the afternoon to the morning, when conditions looked less windy. Valentin and Wellesley head coach Tessa Spillane agreed, along with several of the other schools that originally planned on racing.
To beat the wind, the Ephs set out for Saratoga this morning before the sun rose. WWC's Varsity 4+, with coxswain
Sohani Curtis '27, Stroke Seat
Brenda Jaroker '25, three-seat
Lindsay Gadsden '27, two-seat
Maddy Andersen '25, and bow
Charlotte Ragozin '27, raced first at 9:00 am. The 4+ lined up at the start of the racecourse to the left of Skidmore's Women's 4+.
At 9:00 a.m., a strong cross-tail wind blowing in from starboard side had already picked up, mixed with a heavy head current, making for choppy racing conditions, especially in the second half of the two-thousand-meter racecourse. All coaches agreed that boats would line up from floating starts, though most crews struggled to get into position with strong winds blowing them into the port-side buoy lines. "Once there was even some semblance of alignment they started the race," Andersen said. "We didn't have a moment to breathe, but we just had to go."
Within the first minute of the race, coxswain Curtis' speed coach – the small monitor that tracks the boat's distance and tells the coxswain the rate and split at which the boat is rowing – detatched from its Velcro on the bow and fell into the water, dragged by its cord. As the boat continued to row at full speed, Curtis reached into the cold water to fish it out. "I couldn't feel my hand," she said.
After the speed coach took a plunge in Saratoga Lake, it stopped reporting data. "We were kind of blind in terms of distance and rate," Jaroker said. Typically, the stroke seat of a boat relies on the coxswain to report the stroke rate to ensure the rowers are hitting their goal rate. Without rate, the boat had to trust Jaroker's instincts and pull.
"The start was rough, but we realized quickly we needed to just row," Jaroker said. The boat pulled together their rhythm by 500 meters in. At this point, the speed coach came back on to reveal that the boat was rowing at a solid 32 strokes per minute – exactly their goal stroke rate for the race.
Although the speed coach was reporting rate and split, it had paused its data gathering, so neither the coxswain nor the rowers knew exactly how many meters they had left in the race. By the 500-meter mark, the four had moved into first place. "As soon as we got open water from the start, we realized we just needed to hold it as long as we could, and it didn't matter how much was left," Jaroker said. The boat finished with a time of 8:23, lengths before Skidmore's boat, which finished the race with a time of 8:51.
Next, William's First Varsity 8+ rowed up to the start line, with coxswain
Katie Scott '26, stroke seat
Anna Owens '25, followed by
Isabel Mikheev '25,
Ellie Davis '26,
Ellie Iorio '25,
Claire McDonald '26,
Abby Murphy '25,
Lola Kovalski '25, and
Maya Tait '26 in bow. The last time the Williams 1V faced Wellesley in a two-thousand-meter race was at the 2023 NCAA Championship, where Wellesley took home first place and the Williams 1V finished fifth.
Sophomore
Katie Scott – at the helm of the 1V for the first time in her coxing career – knew this was a race she wanted to win. "I wanted all of our hard work from the winter and our training trip in Clemson to show," Scott said.
Williams pulled up in lane 6 of 6, next to Vassar, followed by Wellesley, Catholic, Stockton and Skidmore.
Katie Scott kept her composure as all boats, once again, struggled to align themselves. Every boat had to take multiple "backing" strokes to realign on the course as the wind pushed boats to port. When the officials called the start of the race, the 1V was two seats down on the other boats. The 1V kept their composure and focused in on Scott's start calls. "There was a sense of calm confidence going into the start," Scott said.
After the boat's starting sequence of strokes, the crew settled to a rate of 36 strokes per minute. At the 200-meter mark, they were half a boat length up on Vassar directly to Scott's left, but half a boat length down to Wellesley, one lane over. At the 400-meter mark, Scott decided that it was already time for the boat to make their first move.
The crew made a decisive surge ahead and pulled themselves even with Wellesley in just 10 strokes. "I felt super calm and confident,"
Abby Murphy said. "I knew in that moment we could do it."
At 650 meters in, Wellesley tried to respond with a power 10 of their own, but Scott called on her boat to hold them off. The two boats rowed in lock-step for the next 150 meters. At the 800 mark, Scott made another ambitious move to break away. "Five strokes for bow! Five strokes for stern! And five for the team!" Scott called.
The crew took three seats during the move and kept their momentum going over the halfway mark. Then, Scott made her boldest decision of the race, calling on her boat to keep walking on Wellesley during the third 500 meters. The boat responded to Scott's calls, surging forward until Scott was sitting on Wellesley's two-seat. "We could sense us moving each stroke and it was the first time in the race that we felt our winter training pay off,"
Isabel Mikheev said.
With roughly 600 meters left, the lake grew wider and became more exposed to wind. The boat hit a few choppy strokes as Wellesley started their sprint early, gaining seats on Williams.
"I got nervous, but I was confident we could hold them for the last fifty strokes,"
Anna Owens said. As the boat neared the finish line, Scott told the crew how fast Wellesley was gaining on them, urging them to give the sprint everything they had left. "I'm on four seat," Scott called with 250 meters to go, letting the crew know that Wellesley had gained two seats on them. "Seven seat!" Scott called with 100 meters left.
When the 1V crossed the finish line, they weren't sure who had won. The official times revealed that Williams finished with a time of 6:50.1, less than a second ahead of Wellesley, who finished with a time of 6:50.8.
"I'm really happy that we won," Scott said. "I think there was a lot of good parts of the race and I'm even more excited to get back to practice after racing today and having things to improve upon. I'm ready to come out even stronger next weekend."
The 1V cheered for the William's 2nd Varsity 8+ from across the water as the 2V rowed up to the start line.
Ariana Oppenheimer '26 coxed the 2V, with
Courtney FitzMaurice '27 in stroke, followed by
Carolyn Fortin '26,
Riley Galizio '24,
Prairie Resch '25,
Sophia Clavenna '27,
Catherine Farman-Farmaian '26,
Molly McWeeny '26, and
Ava Rust '25 in bow. "I looked at
Lola Kovalski in the 1V and she held up a number one, so I knew the 1V had won their race," Galizio said.
Like the 1V, the 2V started their race two seats down on the other boats, because of the floating start. Wellesley and Williams jumped off the start line neck-and-neck for the first 200 meters. As soon as the Ephs settled to their base pace for the race and found their stride, they took a decisive lead over Wellesley and their four other competitors.
"Every time we took a seat, Riley [Galizio] would say 'yep,'"
Ariana Oppenheimer said. "It was calming and made us feel confident,"
Carolyn Fortin said.
"We walked through the boat next to us within 20 strokes and then we had our sights set on Wellesley,"
Riley Galizio said. "It felt like a very offensive race." The 2V finished with a time of 6:55.9, just over 10 seconds ahead of Wellesley.
After three first-place finishes, WWC just needed their 3rd Varsity 8+ to secure a full sweep of all races.
Charis Woo '27 coxed the boat with
Ella Potee in stroke seat, followed by
Cora Birknes '27,
Vivian Johnson '27,
Annie Refermat '26,
Olivia Thurman '27,
Brenda Jaroker '25,
Alexa Hanson '26, and
Arden Fluehr '25 in bow.
Despite a few diggers in the beginning of their race, Williams got ahead off the start. The crew had open water on Wellesley's 3V by the 500-meter mark, and they built on this lead throughout the race. At 600 meters in, Coxswain
Charis Woo called a power 10. "It was the nail in the coffin,"
Annie Refermat said.
The 3V crossed the finish line with a time of 7:26.5, just under 20 seconds ahead of Wellesley.
Audrey Riddle '26 also traveled to Saratoga but didn't row due to injury. "It felt really exciting to see people locked in paddling out to the start and a determined excitement coming back," she said.
WWC's coaching staff left Saratoga proud of their athletes' performances. "Thanks to Skidmore for hosting a great race day," head coach
Paula Thoms said, with agreement from assistant coach
Eileen Russell. "We are proud of the way the team executed today, both on and off the water. They were relentless and resilient on the racecourse in challenging conditions and temperatures. Off the water, they brought professionalism and focus to everything they did."
