The women's rowing team shows great promise for next season after winning the 2009 CAA Championship.

Huskies complete impressive '09 season
June 8, 2009
Boston, Mass.

The women’s rowing team finished a remarkable 2009 season under 11th year head coach Joe Wilhelm, posting a 9-4 record and winning the inaugural CAA Championship.

For the third straight year, the team lost its best oarswoman to injury before the season. Despite the loss of senior Pia Zubrowksi, coach Wilhelm’s goal remained to qualify for the Grand Final at the EAWRC Sprints, and the Huskies did not disappoint.

The season opened with two tough races for the Huskies. Battling rough water and strong headwinds, NU took on Dartmouth, Boston College and Rhode Island in the opener. The Huskies exchanged Power 10’s with the Big Green, but could not take over the lead, finishing second in 7:43.7 to Dartmouth’s 7:38.7 while topping BC and URI. Northeastern then traveled to Syracuse, N.Y. to compete in the Orange Cup against Syracuse and Pennsylvania. Although they took the early lead, the Huskies were unable to hold off the Orange, who finished three seconds ahead of NU.

The competition provided great experience for the Huskies’ next challenge, the inaugural CAA Championship Regatta in Philadelphia, Pa. Competing against crews from Buffalo, Delaware, Drexel, Old Dominion and George Mason, NU won both the varsity and second varsity races, while coming in second in the varsity four race.

Taking their CAA Championship back to the Charles, the Huskies went 2-1 at the Charles River Challenge the following week. NU topped Tennessee by 5.2 seconds, finishing the race in 7:27.9 to the Lady Vols’ 7:32.1, in the afternoon race and finished second to Virginia but bested Gonzaga in the morning race. The Huskies capped of the regular regatta season with a second-place finish at the Beanpot May 2, coming in behind Radcliffe for the second year in a row.

Northeastern then turned its attention to Camden, N.J., the site of the 2009 EAWRC Eastern Sprints. Coming off of a 12th-place finish at last year’s sprints, the sixth-seeded Huskies had their eyes on the Grand Final. In the morning trials, NU was ready to race, taking a slight lead on BU early, and shadowing Brown the entire course. BU bit into the Husky lead a number of times, but the varsity held off these challenges and extended the lead over BU to 3.7 seconds, finishing in second place, 4 seconds off of Brown.

The Huskies lived up to their seeding, finishing sixth in the Grand Final with a time of 6:40.85, behind Yale (6:21.95), Radcliffe (6:22.86), Princeton (6:23.53), Brown (6:26.94) and Dartmouth (6:27.56), who all qualified for the NCAA tournament. The second varsity eight crew placed second in the Petite Final after coming in third in its first heat while the novice and varsity 4 boats, which each finished fourth in their morning heats, took fourth in their respective Petite Finals.

The awards piled in for the Huskies after the season ended. Sophomore Veronica Townsend and seniors Svenja Sanders and Colleen Saville were named to the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-Region teams, with Townsend making first-team All-New England and Sanders and Saville making the second-team All-New England. Seniors Diana Bernstein, Jillise Ketcham and Svenja Sanders and sophomore Rachel Buff were also honored by the CRCA, being named National Scholar-Athletes for the 2009 season.

Saville was also honored at the team’s end of the year banquet, where she was awarded the Jeanne Rowlands, Most Inspirational Award by her teammates. Receiving the novice award for Stephanie June, while Sanders won the Varsity Outstanding Competitor Award and Greta Haselmann won the award for the novice crew.

The team will unfortunately lose six seniors next year, Bernstein, Ketcham, Sanders, Saville, Anna Padilla and Franice Shafer, but coach Wilhelm remains positive about the team’s future.
“While our results at the sprints left us just shy of the NCAA’s,” said Wilhelm, “I am confident that we are headed in the right direction with a number of talented athletes returning next year to finish what we started.”