WORCESTER, Mass. — The Bates College women’s rowing team lived up to its hype, both as defending champion and the top-ranked team in the nation, at the New England Rowing Championships on Saturday.

The Bobcats, ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division III, took first in all seven of their races, including four grand finals.

Bates’ first varsity eight (WV8) beat second-place WPI by nearly seven seconds in the grand final on the 2,000-meter course on Lake Quinsigamond.

The Bobcats’ second eight (W2V8) won even more convincingly, finishing more than nine seconds ahead runner-up Williams.

Bates’ third (W3V8) and fourth (W4V8) varsity eights also dominated their races.

The first, second and third varsity eights also won their time trials earlier in the day.

The Bobcats return to Worcester on Friday and Saturday for the National Invitational Rowing Championships, which also serves as the NESCAC Championships.

Men’s rowing

Bates eights sweep

WORCESTER, Mass. — The Bates College men’s rowing team’s first and second varsity eights dominated the New England Rowing Championships on Saturday.

Bates’ first varsity eight won the grand final by almost five seconds over Boston College.

The Bobcats’ second eight finished its grand final nearly eight seconds ahead of Wesleyan.

Both of Bates’ boats also won their time trials.

The Bobcats’ varsity four finished fourth out of seven boats in the grand final.

Bates returns to Worcester on Friday and Saturday for the National Invitational Rowing Championships, which also serves as the NESCAC Championships.

Baseball

USM 6, Bates 5

LEWISTON — Kaleb Bridgham and Sam Troiano each had two RBIs as the University of Southern Maine defeated Bates 6-5 in a regular-season baseball contest Saturday afternoon.

The Bobcats jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Jack White singled to score two runs.

Bridgeham drove in both of his runs in the top of the second with a single. He later scored on an Andrew Hiller groundout. The Huskies added three more runs in the third as Kyle Heath’s single scored run before Troiano’s single scored Heath and Zach Quintal.

White recorded his third RBI of the game in the bottom of the third with a single. Zach Avila drove in two more runs for the Bobcats added two more in the bottom of the sixth.

Tanner Laberge came on in the first for USM and pitched five innings to pick up the win. 

The Bobcats will be at Trinity College on Friday for the NESCAC tournament.

Bates men second at New Englands; women 11th

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Bates men’s track and field team used 11 scoring performances on the final day to claim second place out of 30 teams Saturday at the New England Division III outdoor track and field championships.

This is the Bobcats’ ninth consecutive year placing among the top three teams in New England.

Bates’ 75 team points were second only to host MIT (162.5). Rounding out the top five teams were UMass-Dartmouth (64), Middlebury (54.5) and Tufts (52).

Senior Ben Tonelli won the 3,000-meter steeplechase title with a season-best time of 9:17.99, which was 6.48 seconds ahead of runner-up Aidan Gilson of MIT. Tonelli vaulted from 10th place into sixth place on Bates’ all-time performance list in the event.

Adedire Fakorede placed second in the shot put (50-10) and third in the hammer throw (179-1).

The Bates women’s track and field team clawed its way to an 11th-place finish out of 35 scoring teams without the benefit of any top-three event finishes Saturday.

Bates scored 26 points on the final day of the meet, half a point behind 10th-place Tufts and one point ahead of both Westfield State and Bridgewater State. Host MIT won with 161 points.

Junior captain Katie Hughes led Bates on the second day by posting two career-best performances, taking fourth in the shot put (39-9) and seventh place in the hammer throw (151-11).

Hughes’ hammer throw vaulted her onto Bates’ all-time top 10 performances list, into sixth place. She remains fifth on Bates’ shot put list after topping her previous best by 10.75 inches.

Three-time All-American Ayden Eickhoff took fourth place for the Bobcats in the 800 meters with a season-best time of 2:13.50. 

A pair of local runners helped Bates place ninth in the 4×100 relay with a season-best time of 49.37 seconds, which is the ninth-fastest time in Bates’ history. Imani Boggan led off, followed by Auburn’ Anna Beaudet, Sarah Shoulta and Lewiston’s Jenny Martin.

Beaudet ran her second personal best time in as many days, finishing 14th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.10 seconds.