Middlesex hosted Newton Country Day School and Buckingham, Brown & Nichols on the Concord River on Saturday, May 4th.  The race order was 3, 2, 4, 1 due to hot seating in the fourth boat and a broken skeg on the warm-up for the first boat.  Gusting headwinds made aligning three crews at the starting line challenging, but all the races went off smoothly.  In the fourth boat race, NCDS and MX jumped ahead of BB&N at the start and battled through the first 500, when NCDS made a move for the lead.  The fourth boat tried to counter, but NCDS continued to move away, eventually finishing six seconds ahead.  

The third boat race began in similar fashion with NCDS and MX vying for the lead.  NCDS made a move at the halfway to pull ahead, but the Middlesex girls countered and gained seats on Newton.  Approaching the sprint, Newton still maintained a small lead.  Middlesex stroke seat Maggie Kelly '13 led a tremendous sprint, during which the third boat continued to gain on Newton.  Alas, their surge was not in time, as Newton bested Middlesex by a mere 1.2 seconds. 

In the second boat race, BB&N and NCDS grabbed a lead right from the start, and the Middlesex crew was unable to battle its way back into the race.  The first boat regained composure in time for the start after having lost their skeg in the warm-up.  Thanks to a McGyver move by head coach Laura McNally '80, as she hung herself over the launch and replaced the skeg mid-river, the crew was ready to race.  All three boats were even off the line, but MX and NCDS battled each other for the lead.  The course has a staggered start to account for a turn late in the race, and despite starting behind, the Middlesex girls pulled even with NCDS by the 750-meter mark.  Coming out of the 1000-meter turn, Middlesex took back the advantage and continued to walk away, finishing six seconds ahead of NCDS and 17 seconds ahead of BB&N. 

Thanks for a great day of racing!