NEVILLE TWP – With winds blowing down the Ohio River, Robert Morris hosted the Yinzer Cup at the Midge McPhail Boathouse to open the Rob Weber era.

On the first race day of the year for Robert Morris, the Colonials welcomed Duequense and Canisius for the Varsity 8, Varsity 4, and Novice 8 races.

“It’s good to create those relationships from a coaching standpoint, but also from an athlete standpoint because they get to see what some of the other programs are doing,” Weber said. “I think it helps raise the profile of the program as well if we can get some other teams to come to us.”

The Varsity 8+ race started the day as Colonials’ boat A placed fifth with a time of 16:45.6. Boat B for Robert Morris came in seventh with a mark of 19:22.7.

As the Colonials battled the elements, Weber spoke about the performance on the day.

“It was challenging conditions dealing with winds and waves,” Weber said. “The results were perhaps a little bit disappointing. We’ve been making really good improvements on the water, but we got a lot of work to do to catch up with a lot of programs in our peer group.”

Following the opening race of the day came the Novice 8 race where the Colonials fell behind Canisius with a mark of 11:29.0.

The lone victory on the day came in the Varsity 4+ race where the Colonials edged out Canisius with a time of 8:54.4.

“That was the bright spot of the day with four athletes who were doubling up from the 8’s and put the 8 away and hopped in the 4 and went and raced again and managed to win so that’s a positive,” Weber said.

Senior Emily Kerry was one of the four rowers apart of the Varsity 4+ boat that beat out Canisius. The rest of the Varsity 4+ lineup included Maria Ringo, Sierra Mackey, Kendall Veach and coxswain Briann Gfroerer She mentioned the challenge of racing twice in a day while still coming out on top.

“For the four we really pulled it together,” Kerry said. “This was our first time in the lineup and being out on the water so it was really impressive.”

After completing her first race of the day, Kerry touched on the importance of preparation heading into the Varsity 4+ race.

“We went in with the idea of long, slow and hard,” Kerry said. “We really wanted to make sure we stayed together and we didn’t start getting frantic and that will happen if we don’t keep our cool.”

While on the water, it is vital that each member of the boat works together in order to put together a winning performance and that was shown in the Varsity 4+ boat.

“The chemistry has to be really high to be able to listen to your coxswain and you have to trust them to give them the calls that you need,” Kerry said. “You have to trust the person in front of you and in back of you are pushing as hard as they can.”

The Colonials return to the waters when they visit Philadelphia, Pa. to compete in the Head of the Schuylkill on Oct. 29.