The Cornell women’s rowing team delivered a strong performance at the Head of the Fish Regatta in Saratoga Springs, New York, on Saturday. The team won four gold medals and achieved seven top-five finishes across ten entries.
Six athletes—Isabella Capelli, Alexis Engman, Eleanor Bijeau, Elise Rueppel, Linnea Barrachin, and coxswain Summit Mock—each contributed to multiple gold-medal races.
“It was a great day for the team overall. We nearly came away with fish heads in all of our events, so that is always fun,” said Steve Coppola, the Staley Head Coach of Cornell Women’s Rowing. “They were on a mission and knew we had to come out blazing. With it being a shorter head race, we couldn’t get caught pacing it like a three-mile piece. The team has been attacking their training and really wanted to make sure that we showed off that fitness. Out of respect for our competition, we wanted to make sure we set out a borderline unreasonable pace to make sure we could build up a little cushion on them.”
Cornell recently earned bronze at the Head of the Charles regatta last weekend. At this event, they took first place in the Women’s Collegiate Eight, Collegiate Frosh/Novice Four, Collegiate Four, and Collegiate Frosh/Novice Eight categories. The Varsity Eight (V8+) led with a time of 11:27.487—over 15 seconds ahead of Boston College.
In the Second Varsity Eight (2V8+), all three Cornell crews finished among the top seven. The ‘A’ boat claimed silver with a time just over one second behind Boston College’s winning crew.
Cornell’s fours placed three boats in the top seven among 41 competitors in their event; their ‘A’ crew finished almost 19 seconds ahead of its nearest rival.
The program’s frosh/novice boats also won both their races by significant margins over other teams.
Next week marks the conclusion of Cornell’s fall season as they face Syracuse in a scrimmage at Ten Eyck Boathouse.
“We get to ‘get in the lab’ and experiment with some things before having to head indoors for the winter,” Coppola said. “The semester has flown by and I think that is because everyone is having so much fun.”
