During the men's heavyweight varsity fours, Amherst grabbed an early lead and never surrendered it, beating opponents by a margin of 4.2 seconds. The team, composed of Dave Imbert '05, co-captain Emmet O'Hanlon '03, Matt Vanneman '06, Sean Stafford '05 and coxswain Xin Zheng '05 went up against two Williams heavyweights, one Wesleyan heavyweight and a Williams novice four. Although the varsity Ephs attempted to overtake the Jeffs a few times, Amherst held their rival off to come through as the winners.
The second fours team, composed of lightweights Gabe Ravel '05, Nat Green '05, Ari Reichstein '03, co-captain Matt Gordon '03 and coxswain Eugenia Tsai '05 similarly took the lead in the race from the start and never relinquished it. "Ari and I have rowed together since freshman year in fours as well as in the pair," Gordon said. "He and I were ecstatic to have beaten Williams in our final Little III competition."
The men's varsity eight and novice eight were unable to bring in wins, although their rowers gave a strong performance. The varsity eight finished a respectable 9.9 seconds behind second place Wesleyan and 16.8 seconds behind Williams, who won with a time of 6:21.4.
So far, the men's season has been marked by some difficulties due to uncharacteristically bad weather. "Our season has been going pretty much according to plan, although the unseasonable cold weather made practicing really unpleasant since we've been on the river since coming back from spring break," O'Hanlon said. "It's tough to row with a ton of clothes on." Their first meet of the spring against Mass. Maritime and Bowdoin College was cancelled due to bad weather.
Amherst geared up all week to improve their chances against their Little III rivals, focusing a large portion of practice time on race starts, which added to their winter conditioning program of rowing on machines and lifting weights. They also spent significant time preparing for the third 500-meter segment of their races, which is typically a crucial mark due to the fact that crews begin to tire. This part of the race is often the point when races can be won or lost.
"Focusing on both of these elements paid huge dividends at the Little IIIs, and our coach, Bill Stekl, deserves much of the credit for preparing us so well," said Gordon.
O'Hanlon agreed with Gordon that their hard work paid off. "Our technique also made the difference in the races, and it made all the hours of practicing worth it to beat Williams," O'Hanlon said. "Our coach gave us a great race plan for the fours and eight races, and we executed it the best we have all season. We rowed long, clean strokes."
The Jeffs look to defend their overall points trophy at the New England Fours Championship Regatta this Saturday in Lowell, Mass.
"Beating Williams is one of the highlights of my rowing career at Amherst, and I'm very proud of my teammates who worked hard all winter to make us competitive and give us the opportunity to win two Little III events," said O'Hanlon. "I'm also proud of the freshman rowers who have pulled a bunch of good races this season as well. We'll need them to contribute to the effort next week if we want to win it again."