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Sports

Wayland-Weston Crew Repeat State Champions

The Wayland-Weston crew team won the state championship for the sixth straight year.

The Wayland-Weston crew team extended its winning streak at the State Championships. For six straight years the team has brought home the state championship trophies for girls, boys and overall. 

The Massachusetts Public School Rowing Association held the 2011 MPSRA Spring State Championship Regatta on the Merrimack River on Sunday, May 29. 

The State Championship is a combination of the individual performances of each crew, which earns points based on finishing place in its races. The points from each race are tallied at the end of the day to determine the boys, girls and overall team state champions.

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It was a beautiful day to be on the water and the Wayland-Weston rowers made the best of it.  The teams were able to earn medals in every event they entered, winning eight gold medals, two silvers and a bronze.  

All but one of the boats that Wayland-Weston entered at the championship regatta are called eights, which consist of eight rowers and a coxswain. 

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“The highlight for the girls’ varsity squad was a sweep of the varsity eights,”  Wayland-Weston crew coach Matthew Hanig said.

In one of the closest races of the day, the girls’ first varsity race had Wayland-Weston and Bromfield (Acton-Boxborough) rowing dead even for the first 1,200 meters of the 1,500 meter course. The Wayland-Weston girls pulled out the win with a furious sprint in the last 30 strokes to take home the gold medal by 1.02 seconds.

In addition to the exciting victory of the first varsity team, the second varsity and third varsity crews were also victorious. The girls’ second varsity crew won its race by almost two seconds and the girls’ third varsity crew finished first by nearly three seconds.

The boys’ first and second varsity crews also rowed to victory in close races. The boys’ third varsity narrowly missed making it a sweep for the boys’ varsity squad, losing to Hingham by just eight-tenths of a second.

In the novice classes, Wayland-Weston showed its strength with its future varsity crews. The boys’ first novice boat finished first by a wide margin, besting second place Worcester by more than 19 seconds. The boys’ second novice rowers also brought home a gold medal. The girls’ first novice boat finished in second place behind Bromfield by a narrow margin of just more than one second. The girls’ second novice crew earned a gold medal, finishing first in another close race. 

Wayland-Weston also entered a girls’ novice four (four rowers and a coxswain), which finished in third place.

In addition to the individual medals earned by the Wayland-Weston rowers, the teams also earned trophies for Girls Team State Champions, Boys Team State Champions and Overall Team MPSRA State Champions.

“This was a great day for Wayland-Weston crew,” Hanig commented at the end of the day-long regatta. 

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