The St. Lawrence University men's varsity crew swept its competition on the weekend, avenging a spring training loss to Hamilton on Saturday and defeating Union on Sunday.  

The Saints' varsity 8+  raced the 2,000-meter course in 7:20.0 to retain the Houlihan Cup on Saturday.  Hamilton took second place as it finished 7:36.0.  Sophomore Audrey Strasenburgh coxed on the weekend, while senior Dave MacClaren stroked.  Also powering the eight were seniors Nick Blum and Cam West, junior Brent Underwood, sophomore Francis Stripp and first-year students Andy Caswell, Andrew Freeman and Ethan Buhl. 

"The guys handled the conditions very well," said Saints Head Coach George Repicky.  "We did a nice job getting good connection in the challenging conditions." 

Due to unsafe racing conditions, four events were canceled after the men's varsity eight. The men's second varsity eight, women's varsity eight, women's second varsity eight and women's varsity four races were not held.

On Sunday, there was a strong head current and a 20-to-25 mile-per-hour  head wind that was variable and quartering from both sides.  The Saints, however, handled the conditions and took two of the three events at Union.  The varsity posted another first place finish, racing a time of 8:03 while the Dutchmen finished in 8:24. 

The varsity four also posted a first place finish, racing a short1500m course in 6:46 while Union finished in 7:10.  The four was coxed by Strasenburgh and stroked by Blum.  Caswell, West and Stripp also raced for the Saints. 

The novice eight, which was entered in the JV event, raced a time of 8:28, behind Union which finished in 8:19.  First-year student Elena Ruiz coxed the eight while classmate Sam Scheu stroked.  Also powering the novice eight were Evan Pierce, Thaddeus Sipe, Michael Brewer, Tom Lockwood, Connor Berkery, Peter Weatherill and Phil Hodosy.

"The novice eight has had to make a lot of big changes over the past few weeks, rowing their new lineup only three times before facing Union's second varsity eight on Sunday morning," said Assistant Coach Amanda Dudley.  "This young crew has made solid improvement over the past week and rowed well in adverse conditions against a more experienced group."

The Saints will host the Liberty League Championships this Saturday, April 23 in Waddington, NY.