NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – Three women's boats captured gold to help the Fairfield University rowing teams take first place in the women's points championship and second place behind Army in the combined teams points championship at the Metropolitan Rowing Association's spring regatta.

                The novice 8 started things off right with a win in the first final of the day. Fairfield finished the race with a time of 7:44.8, comfortably defeating Army by 15 seconds. The crew included Katherine Pitz, Carmen Fox, Eileen Harris, Anne Baudinet, Grace Lessard, Corin Oley, Sylvia Cheng, Clarissa Frank, and coxswain Jhomalys Moran.

                The women's pair was next up and secured a third-place run behind Maritime and Iona. The Stags, comprised of Liz Kavanagh and Molly Graffam, posted their time in 9:27.6, just five seconds off Maritime's winning pace.

                The varsity 4 put Fairfield back in the lead by winning its heat in 8:59.6 and coming back to win the final in 9:13.1. The Stags defeated Dowling College by less than two seconds in the heat and followed up with a nine-second differential in the final. The boat consisted of Katherine Pitz, Carmen Fox, Eileen Harris, Anne Baudinet, and coxswain Mikayla Daniels. Fairfield also entered a second varsity 4 which finished second in its heat and took fourth overall (9:32.9) through the efforts of Molly Graffam, Lorena Gullotta, Grace Lessard, Liz Kavanagh, and coxswain Jhomalys Moran.

                The varsity 8 finished off the day for the women's competitors and the Stags continued their domination by finishing second in their heat before winning the final. Sacred Heart edged out Fairfield (7:52.0) in the heat by just under six seconds. The unit shaved six seconds off that time in the final with a time of 7:46.0, five-plus seconds better than runner up Army. Fairfield's participants included Katherine Pitz, Carmen Fox, Eileen Harris, Lorena Gullotta, Grace Lessard, Anne Baudinet, Molly Graffam, Liz Kavanagh, and coxswain Mikayla Daniels.

Coach Patterson Comments
"The women's team put in a stunning performance really working together as a whole team to bring back 3 gold medals and 1 bronze. The varsity 8 is the premier event in collegiate rowing and undoubtedly the toughest event to win. Many rowers can go through a whole collegiate career without winning a varsity 8 race. In my first four years at Fairfield, despite numerous successes in the smaller boats and novice boats we had only notched up one varsity eight victory. This season alone, my fifth, the squad has put in two varsity eight winning performances at the Dowling Invitational and now the Spring Metropolitan Regatta. This spring we have been struggling to get past Army but managed to do so when it mattered the most as our season starts to wind up to the biggest events in our schedule.

Just a look at the line-ups shows that our speed, this season, is in good part based on some of our freshmen, five of whom competed in both the varsity 8 and the novice 8 and four of whom also combined to win the varsity 4 event. Essentially our novice 4 has already beaten all the novice crews registered for this event so we decided to raise the bar to see how they would fair against the varsity competition. The gold medal would suggest they faired well. However to win the varsity eight, we also needed some wise, experienced heads in the boat and the crew was filled out by our most powerful 'engine' Grace Lessard and the savvy of Dad Vail gold medalist Molly Graffam and Dad Vail bronze medalists Lorena Gullotta and Liz Kavanagh."

                The men's competition started with the novice 4 as the Stags took second place in their heat with a time of 7:58.7. Army won the heat in 7:37.3, but Fairfield managed to advance to the final. Rowers Sam Sullivan, Ariel Miranda, Stacey Grasso, and Rocco Vigorito took sixth place in the final with a time of 8:31.0.

                The novice 8 took to the lagoon next and won its heat against Army, Iona, Stony Brook, and Albany. Tom Siddall, Scott Grueneberg, Chris Backer, Luke Auger, Alex Johnson, Cameron Shalkowski, Sam Sullivan, Brenin Ford, and coxswain Trent Domingos combined for second place in the final, crossing the finish line in 7:28.7, 10 seconds off Army's winning time.

                The men's pair enjoyed a similar path for its day by winning the heat and securing second in the final. Matt McNeill and Phillip Falco teamed up in the heat for a time of 8:27.7 and came back for the next race with a time of 8:42.3
                The varsity four captured a first-place run in the third heat by beating out Army's A boat. The Stags covered the course in 7:40.6, but Army battled back for the win in the final by four seconds. Fairfield's time in the final was 8:06.0 which ran fifth in the event. The crew included Brendan Spearing, Floris-Jan Floris, Matt McNeill, and Eddy Wiener.

                The varsity 8 ended the day with a spirited effort, winning the heat (6:31.3) over Albany and Binghamton before finishing fourth in the final (7:06.6). Army won the final with a time of 6:49.5. Fairfield's entry was comprised of Brendan Spearing, Floris-Jan Floris, Chris Becker, Scott Grueneberg, Matt McNeill, Eddy Weiner, Phil Falco, Brenin Ford, and coxswain Trent Domingos.

Coach Patterson Comments
The men's squad once again showed they have good speed. However as we progress to the next big races the team needs to row a little bit smarter. Admittedly we put our athletes in a lot of races which is undoubtedly exhausting but that means even more the need to balance the effort required to qualify for a final over the need to race all out in a heat. Beating Army in a heat is not beating Army. Beating Iona in a heat is not beating Iona. We need to be able to row wisely through the heats, doing enough and no more than enough to guarantee the opportunity to race for medals. The men's team knows that I believe we have a varsity four that can beat conference rivals Iona and a novice eight that can beat Army. With two regattas left time is running out to turn my belief in to proof! The men's team also know that I think what they've done this year, putting in the work to really lay a genuine foundation to our developing varsity program, has been a tremendous achievement and if they stay the course, stay committed to their training, to each other, to the team they have the potential to really up the reputation of the team in the collegiate rowing community.