The Fordham Rowing crew took to the water for the second time this spring. Their first competition in the spring was at the Jesuit Invitational in Philadelphia. They brought home two top finishes with the Second Varsity 8 and the Second Varsity 4 each coming in first, along with multiple other boats coming in their group’s top three. Looking to build upon this early success, they headed to the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, N.J. for the Knecht Cup.

The team “executed the race plan as intended, made adjustments when they needed to and didn’t leave anything on the table,” said head coach Rebecca Gronsdahl. This was shown after the first day of competition with five boats going on to compete in Sunday’s Grand Final. Those teams were Varsity 8, Second Varsity 8, Second Varsity 4, Third Varsity 4 and Freshman/Novice 4. Out of those teams, there was one first place finish, three second places and a fifth place that allowed the five to qualify for the final races on Sunday.

In the Sunday finale, the best result for the Rams came from the Freshman/Novice 4 composed of freshmen Alex Zaneski, Celeste Batres, Bailey Scherdorf, Logan Gray and junior Elizabeth Weldon, who finished in second place with a time of 8:21. The boat was only a mere 2.69 seconds behind Monmouth A but a 12-second gap ahead of third place finishers Delaware.

In a tight race, the Second Varsity 8 shell finished in fourth place with a time of 6:59.95. Although the team came in fourth, they were only .47 seconds from third and 3.79 seconds behind the winner. Fordham also came away with two fifth-place finishes in the Second Varsity 4 with a time of 8:26.38 and the Third Varsity 8 with a time of 8:01.10. They closed out the weekend with a sixth-place result in the Varsity 8.

Gronsdahl said she was pleased with the outcome of the regatta highlighting the progress that has been made, as seen in both the results and how each boat raced.

She said she was also “very happy to see how all the boats performed under pressure at a large regatta,” mentioning the skill that was needed and fulfilled “by the exceptional group of young women.”The team will now look toward this weekend’s Spring Metropolitan Championships at Glen Island to build on the success that they saw at the Knecht Cup.