#1 Wesleyan Men’s Rowing Captures Little Three Title, Defeating #4 Williams

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The No. 1 ranked Wesleyan men’s crew team is headed back to Middletown with some hardware as the Cardinals’ varsity 8 defeated No. 4 Williams by nearly eight seconds on Saturday afternoon from Fish Creek in this highly-anticipated matchup of the top two boats from the 2024 IRCA National Championship.

• RESULTS

Each team brought four varsity 8 boats for the afternoon 2000m races, which took place under heavy winds, resulting in a cross-headwind for the teams to battle against. Due to lengthy race delays, the varsity and 2^nd varsity 8 boats raced in the same flight. Wesleyan’s varsity 8 got up early and crossed the line first with a time of 6:39.19, followed by the Williams 2^nd varsity (6:43.04), Williams varsity 8 (6:46.87), and the Cardinals’ 2^nd varsity (6:48.48).

“Yesterday’s racing in Saratoga was a wild and windy event,” said Wesleyan head coach Phil Carney. “After a long wait on the water, our first varsity crew had a terrific performance to bring home the Saratoga Oar Trophy from the crew of 1878! The crew overcame a strong headwind, rough water and a highly competitive Williams crew to secure the win with a steady move throughout the whole course. While our lower crews were less successful, all three had strong performances, and were extremely competitive with their strong Williams counterparts. We head back to the river with two weeks to fine tune for the New England Championships in Worcester.”

The win for Wesleyan’s varsity 8 secures the 19^th Little Three title (Saratoga Oar) in team history for the Cardinals in what is the 56^th all-time meeting. This marks the first time the Cardinals have won the Little Three since 2019.

Up next were the 3^rd and 4^th varsity 8 boats, also racing together due to delays and weather. Williams 3^rd varsity finished first at 6:53.49, followed by the Wesleyan 3^rd varsity (6:58.36), Williams 4^th varsity (7:00.27), and Wesleyan 4^th varsity (7:07.16).

The Cardinals have two weeks to prepare for the New England Championships held on Saturday, May 4 at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester.

Wesleyan featured the following lineups on Saturday:
Varsity 8 – Asher Israel ’26 (coxswain), Pierce Buckner-Wolfson ’26, Nelson Bellows ’26, Emmett Nunes ’23, Gus Shuman, Eli Smirin ’26, Paul Kiyonaga ’25, Hugo Harington ’25, Brett Beaman ’26
2nd Varsity 8 – Ben Fischer ’27 (coxswain), Nate Newcomer ’25, Freddie Bell ’25, Max Ewing ’24, Eli Koiistra ’25, Cabot Adams ’27, Cory Reavy ’26, Evan Salhanick ’27, Josh Silbert ’26
3rd Varsity 8 – Meg Rubenstein ’25 (coxswain), Will McNally ’27, Andrew Steinert ’25, Taji Duncan ’27, Jack Cornog ’26, Nader Moghadam ’26, Haakon Kohler ’27, Frank Castrofillippi ’27, Teddy Manning ’25
4th Varsity 8 – Mo Frazier ’25 (coxswain), Morgan Shatzman ’25, Tor Kushner ’27, Alex Glotzer ’25, Rowan Cahill ’26, Ro Barrett ’26, Alex Kelsh ’27, Nick Jarrett ’25, Tobias Classen ’27