By Max Nagel, News Correspondent

Women’s rowing head coach Joe Wilhelm – fresh off of his 100th win – and his crew successfully sought Northeastern’s fifth Woodbury Cup Saturday morning on the Charles.

“Winning the Woodbury Cup this year was very satisfying, especially after last year’s race, in which we lost against Columbia by a heartbreaking two seconds,” sophomore stroke Greta Haselmann said.

The Huskies’ finish was a school record for the fastest time for a Northeastern women’s crew to complete the Charles River two-kilometer course.

Columbia and Northeastern competed for the annual Woodbury Cup, named for 1996 Columbia graduate and rower Melanie Woodbury who died in a car accident in 2002. Dartmouth College rowers also raced – and won – but their finish did not count toward the Woodbury Cup as onlt Northeastern and Columbia compete.

In the Varsity 8 Dartmouth and Northeastern were bow to bow for much of the race, only gaining minimal leads. It was in the final meters of the race when Dartmouth grabbed a seat on Northeastern to pass the 2,000 meter mark just before the Huskies. Dartmouth finished with a time of 6:29.3 and Northeastern was just four seconds behind, 6:29.7.

With Columbia finishing at 6:34.8, almost five seconds behind Northeastern, the Huskies won their fifth Woodbury Cup.

“The Varsity 8 made some major improvements in this race,” Wilhelm said. “After reviewing the video from last week, they completely dedicated themselves to rowing with more length and control this week, and executed it on race day. They rowed more efficiently which allowed them to maintain their speed, and gave them a good kick in the last 500 meters.”

“Columbia did not give the cup to us easily and the race itself was very exciting,” Haselmann said. “By beating a strong crew like Columbia and simultaneously setting a new school record for the Charles, we regained our self-confidence which had suffered a little bit after last week’s unfortunate race at the Beanpot.”

The second Varsity 8 and Varsity 4 A and Varsity 4 B all finished third, trailing just behind the strong crews of Dartmouth and Columbia.

“Our Fours and [second Varsity 8] rowed almost exactly the same times as last weekend in similar conditions,” Wilhelm said. “Having said that, all of our crews need to work on maintaining their speed throughout the entire race. They have shown good boat speed at times, and just need to become more consistent.”

Women’s rowing will travel to Syracuse, N.Y. to race against the University of Pennsylvania and Syracuse University on Lake Onondaga on Saturday.

“It is always a tough battle when these three programs get together, and I expect that to be the case on Saturday,” Wilhelm said.

Men’s crew will be back in action after a weekend off when they row on the Charles against Boston University Saturday at 7:30 a.m.