RIDGEFIELD, N.J. – Villanova's two varsity eight boats posted third-place A Final finishes at the NYRA Invitational Sunday.
Both boats earned spots in the afternoon A finals after strong showings in the morning heats. The day was highlighted by a heat win from the V8 in Sunday's first race.
"I was impressed with how the athletes handled themselves on a new course," Villanova head coach
Carissa Adams said. "We came out of the heats feeling really accomplished. All-in-all, it was a good day with many lessons learned. We are going to need to figure out how to keep the momentum from the heats to the finals for the future. This race highlighted some areas for improvement going into next week's race against Bucknell and provided the team with some inspiration heading into winter training."
The V8 team of
Madison Girard,
Maggie Coyne,
Kira Capaldi,
Sarah Robillard,
Kara Dempsey,
Jadyn Ramos,
Cecilia Jenkins,
Isabella Thorne and
Anna Flynn started the day strong for the 'Cats. They distanced themselves from UConn and Fairfield by three seconds, winning their heat in 6:57.511 to lock in a spot in the afternoon 1V A Final. They finished out their day in a tight race for second against Marist, but was just edged out by the Red Foxes, finishing a second behind them in third at 7:24.704. The two teams sat behind a winning Holy Cross group that finished four seconds ahead of the rest of the field in 7:19.063. UConn and Fairfield finished behind the 'Cats in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Cate Donnelly,
Hannah Jenkins,
Makenna Davis,
Grace Quirk,
Sabrina Pauli,
Julia Kreisl,
Silvana Torres,
Sage Santora and
Caroline Colgan finished second in the morning's 2V8 first heat, clocking in at 7:18.048. They finished four seconds behind UConn, but landed a spot in the A Final as the next fastest time with Holy Cross winning the second heat in 7:22.095. In the afternoon, the Wildcats were third behind UConn and Holy Cross, finishing in 7:44.649.
This week brings a quick turnaround for the 'Cats as they head to Lewisburg, Pa. for the Bucknell Invite on Saturday to close out their fall schedule.
