This past Saturday, WPI was once again the host of the annual Worcester indoor rowing event, the Ernst Mooser Indoor Rowing Championships. The event drew competitors from several local rowing programs, including Assumption and Clark University.
As most rowing events tend to do, the event began early in the morning on Saturday with the novice women's races, followed by novice men, varsity women and finally the varsity men. Every competitor "rows" 2000 meters, or about a mile and a half on a rowing ergometer, which calculates the athlete's split over 500 meters, and keeps track of time and total distance rowed. In about six and a half to eight minutes, a race is completed.
WPI placed in several events, with Maureen Foley (7:54.5), Katie Gagnon (8:07.7), Elisa Baker (8:16.9) and Julie Cerqueira (8:19.2) of the novice women's team capturing the team title with a combined time of 33:38.3. The Assumption women followed WPI with a combined time of 34:51.1. Anne-Marie Chouinard, who is training to compete at the CRASH-B World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston later this month, finished with the fastest time among all varsity women competing, at 7:50.2. Clark's novice team was able to better WPI by winning the team and individual races, with 27:39.8 versus WPI's 28:06.6. The WPI varsity men finished off the morning by crushing the opposing teams with a combined time of 26:55.4, pulled by Ernie Moseley (7:11.0), Scott Hamel (6:41.8), Carl Messina (6:31.3) and Eric Wilhelm (6:31.3). Messina and Wilhelm also tied for the fastest time of the day, both completing the 2000 meter course in 6:31.3 minutes.
The WPI men's and women's crew teams are club sports at WPI, rowing on nearby Lake Quinsigamond out of the Donahue Rowing Center. Both teams have seen much success over the past months, with the men's varsity four winning the New England Championships this past spring after an undefeated season. This was followed up by a third place finish at the Textile Regatta in Lowell this past October, and medaling at both the Head of the Connecticut and Head of the Charles Regattas by finishing second and fifth, respectively. The novice women's eight also medaled at the Head of the Connecticut, finishing first, this past fall.
This spring, the crew teams will be making the trip to Gainesville, Georgia to train on the Olympic course of Lake Lanier for the third consecutive year. Several members of the men's and women's teams will be competing later this month in the upcoming indoor rowing championships in Boston.