By Alex Speir

Rowing races at the Hadley Chase Regatta, where the A team finished second (Courtesy of David Comerford).

The Fordham rowing team raced this past weekend in the inaugural Hadley Chase Regatta in Hadley, Massachusetts. The regatta was hosted by the University of Massachusetts.

At the 12:30 p.m. dash qualifying race, the Fordham A team finished in second place with a time of 18:09.6, falling short only to Dartmouth A team, who had a time of 17:39.3. The B team finished in 10th with a time of 19:25.5, beating out four A teams. The C team finished in 21:13.6, ahead of two B teams and an A team.

The A team’s finish qualified them for the 500m dash, as the first four finishers qualified. It again finished second with a time of 1:41.7, less than four seconds behind the Dartmouth A team.

The results of the weekend’s races were encouraging to assistant rowing coach Alyssa Dewey.

“We have a really competitive group of women on the team this year,” said Dewey. “Not only do we have a number of top rowers returning to the team, but we also have a very strong group of recruited freshman. Although we’ve just kicked off our fall racing season, their talent and their training is evident in their results.”
Dewey praised her team’s efforts at this meet and its opener at the Head of the Housatonic on Oct 7. Its performance at that first race was the reason for their success this past weekend, she said.

“The first and second varsity 8+ boats both finished ahead of conference rivals UMass on their home course, beating them by 35 seconds in the first varsity lineup,” said Dewey. “The third varsity crew overtook Fairfield and Amherst third varsity crews and finished just four seconds behind the UMass third varsity boat, which really demonstrates the depth of talent on our team this year.”

The team seems hopeful for the future of the season.

“The team has seen a series of strong finishes across the board for the past two weekend’s regattas,” said Olivia Herman, FCRH ’21. “The bond between teammates pushes us to exceed previous personal limits during training both on and off the water, and our shared passion for the sport inspires us to face the challenges of competition with grace and courage. We are looking forward to our future races, notably Head of the Charles this weekend, and to finish our season with the same spirit, energy, and power we’ve had from the very start.”

Fordham Rowing will be back in Massachusetts at the Head of the Charles race that will take place over two days on Oct. 21 and 22.