HAMILTON – Colgate's Varsity 8+ made it back-to-back wins in the Bill Braxton Memorial Cup race during Sunday's final regatta of the fall season.
 
The victory wrapped up a double-dose of racing, with Saturday competition at the Frostbite Regatta and Sunday at the Bill Braxton. Both events took place in New Jersey.
 
Here was assistant's coach Anthony Chacon's take on the Frostbite Regatta:
 
"Our varsity raced Penn Lightweights in the Varsity 8. Penn is having a great year and had some successes against some of our other opponents. Comparing our speed to them allows us to estimate some other fast crews and chart our progress since the start of the racing back at Head of the Charles.
 
"We fielded a Novice 8+ with some of our new walk-ons and other first years. Rutgers frosh were a great opponent and came in first, 3 seconds ahead. We have power but they just rowed better than us at the catch and with less rush. All novice mistakes, which we will remedy quickly."


 
For the Bill Braxton, Coach Chacon had this to say:  
 
"Having two regattas back-to-back is great because it allows for a more varied roundup of opponents. Like last year, we did well against Marietta. They really got a jump on us at the start and we could tell they were really going for it and not holding back. We had a bit more in the tank, so we pulled away in the second 1K. I would not be surprised if they come back even stronger after winter training.
 
"We split our top 8 into two Varsity 4s. Both fours did great, both having some of our first-year, recruited frosh. The novice 4+ did very well and beat Marietta by something like 24 seconds. We put the boat with three of our newest rowers, maybe having rowed on the water a week, in the B entry and they had their first taste of racing. Later, after we did a few lineup swaps from the Frosh 8 lineup from Frostbite, we raced the JV8 event with a 75 percent frosh lineup. It ended up being a better race for us since we had two Marietta boats to race against. It was a closer race than any of the others. With the lineup change and a few technical focuses, we dropped 20 seconds off our time from the Frosh race the day before.
 
Finally, in the Varsity 8 event we took the Bill Braxton Memorial Cup home again this year and brought home a nice bamboo wall plaque to hang in the Crew office in Huntington Gym."



Luke Smith '20: "Winning the Braxton Regatta was a great way to finish off the season. It is a reminder that we are up to par with our previous successful seasons. This fall we have been trying to bring the freshmen into the program and get them accustomed to the intensity they will be facing during the long winter. We have accomplished this goal and we look forward to the indoor training season."

Elliot Duessel '23: "My first fall of racing was a great experience. Coming from rowing in high school, I have not had the chance to compete against much competition at this level and this fall was a great introduction to the type of training, intensity of training, and caliber of racing opponents I will see in my next four years. I am very excited for racing this coming spring!

"The crews have come a very long way since the start of the fall season. Our freshman/novice 8+, for example, contains two rowers who are brand new to the sport completely. Our results in races this fall promise an exciting spring racing season.

I had an amazing time at the back-to-back regattas this past weekend. I raced at these regattas in high school, and the races being sprint races instead of the normal fall head races makes for a great transition into winter training and eventually sprint racing in the spring. It was great to be able to race in a couple of different boat classes and a wide range of competition."

Here are the results of each boat:
 
Frostbite Regatta
Men's Frosh/Novice 8+
Cox: Lily Barna.
Crew: 8 Lucas Austin, 7 Harris Goodin, 6 August Girardi, 5, Colin Clark, 4 Rahul Bhandaru, 3 Luke Davenport, 2 Ryan Pere, 1 Elliot Duessel.
 
Men's Varsity 8+
Cox: Tali Filstein.
Crew: 8 Andrew Smith, 7 Connor Appleyard, 6 Noah Barkoff, 5, David McKay, 4 Thomas Feeney, 3 Gian Civitello, 2 Alex Damjanovic, 1 Luke Smith.


 
Bill Braxton Regatta
Men's Collegiate 4+ (A)
Cox: Tali Filstein.
Crew: 4. Connor Appleyard, 3. Tom Feeney, 2. David McKay, 1. Andrew Smith.
 
Men's Collegiate 4+ (B)
Cox: Miranda Tompkins.
Crew: 4. Noah Barkoff, 3. Gian Civitello, 2. Alex Damjanovic, 1. Luke Smith.
 
Men's Collegiate Frosh/Novice 4+ (A)
Cox: Seth Rock.
Crew: 4. Colin Clark, 3. August Girardi, 2. Elliot Duessel, 1. Ryan Pere.
 
Men's Collegiate Frosh/Novice 4+ (B)
Cox: Lily Barna.
Crew: 4. Rahul Bhandaru, 3. Chadd Chang, 2. Michael Miller, 1. Harris Goodin.

Men's Collegiate Junior Varsity 8+
Cox: Miranda Tompkins.
Crew: 8 Lucas Austin, 7 Jackson Foley, 6 August Girardi, 5, Colin Clark, 4 Seth Rosen, 3 Luke Davenport, 2 Ryan Pere, 1 Elliot Duessel.
 
Men's Collegiate Varsity 8+
Cox: Tali Filstein.
Crew: 8 Andrew Smith, 7 Connor Appleyard, 6 Noah Barkoff, 5, David McKay, 4 Thomas Feeney, 3 Gian Civitello, 2 Alex Damjanovic, 1 Luke Smith.