On Sunday, the Massachusetts women’s rowing team headed to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., for the Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s Eastern Sprints. There, the Minutewomen faced 14 teams from various Northeastern conferences, with Temple being UMass’ only Mid-American Conference opponent. A Northwest tailwind with wind gusts up to 12 mph offered a fair day on the racecourse.

The varsity eights proved to be good competition early on. The Minutewomen broke 6:30 for the second consecutive weekend, but it was not enough to land them a spot in the grand finale. Brown finished first overall in the heats with a 6:14 time, putting just 15 seconds between the top nine boats across all three heats. The petite final was just as competitive, with boats finishing within a second of each other. UMass took second place with a 6:30.19, which put the Minutewomen in eighth place overall.

California native AJ Prahl coxed the second varsity eight to a speedy 6:48.26, which landed the boat in lane six of its final. The boat’s final time was 6:50.11, landing second in its respective final and eighth place overall. UMass kept its gap behind the first-place-finisher, Columbia, under 10 seconds, and just managed to stay ahead of Cornell by a bow ball, finishing within the same second.

The second varsity four kicked off racing on Sunday in one of two heats. The Minutewomen came in with a 7:36.4, sending them to the petite final. The boat came in 10 seconds behind Northeastern and beat Boston College by just under a second.  Coxswain Sara Lavigna commanded the boat to fourth in the petite final and a 10th-place overall finish with a 7:49.77, adding about 13 seconds to the boat’s earlier heat time.

New Hampshire native Meghan O’Hern coaxed the varsity four from one of three heats into the petite final. Stroke seat Anastasiia Kolesnikova led her crew to a 7:32.41 finish, holding off Holy Cross by over 16 seconds, but failing to close the eight-second gap between UMass’ and Radcliffe’s boat.

In the petite final, the Minutewomen were placed in lane four, where they improved their heat time by a second, ending with a 7:31.91 time and a third-place finish, the highest placing of any UMass boat across the competition. Cornell pushed the Minutewomen to the end, coming in less than a second behind them at 7:32.57, while Northeastern left a seven-second gap ahead of UMass.

Sophomore Mia Bierowski coxed the third varsity eight in heat two to a 7:02.61, landing her crew in lane four of the petite final. The Minutewomen rallied with a 7:06.41, landing the boat in fifth place in its respective final and 11th place overall.

The fourth varsity eight had no heats and only had a final. The UMass boat, led by sophomore Dagny Sammis, placed third out of the four boats in the category with a 7:17.14, coming in 10 seconds behind Northeastern, and leaving Boston College behind by about 21 seconds.

As the Minutewomen conclude their inaugural season competing in the MAC, they have their sights set on the MAC Rowing Championships. There, they will battle for their ticket to the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships, searching for their first appearance in the national-level competition since 2014.

The MAC Championships will take place on Saturday, May 16, on Ford Lake in Ypsilanti, Mich. The races will be livestreamed on ESPN+. The start time is still to be determined.

Olivia Thibodeaux can be reached at [email protected].

Minogue’s words during a recent appearance on WCVB’s “On The Record” — “I’m a Catholic and I am pro-life” — certainly run counter to the careful abortion rights positioning of other Massachusetts Republicans who won the governor’s office over the past three-plus decades.

When Charlie Baker ran for governor in 2014, his first general election campaign ad featured his then-17-year-old daughter saying, “You’re totally pro-choice and bipartisan.” When Mitt Romney ran for governor in 2002, he stated in a debate, “I will preserve and protect a women’s right to choose.” When Bill Weld ran for governor in 1990, he told the Globe, “Count me as ‘modified pro-choice.’”

Over time, these positions evolved in different ways.

Weld went from “modified pro-choice” to showing up at a national GOP convention to lobby against the party’s antiabortion platform. When Romney ran for president, he retreated completely from the stance he’d taken in Massachusetts. Despite Baker’s “totally pro-choice” positioning, he ultimately vetoed a bill that expanded access to abortion, including a provision that would have allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to get an abortion without parental consent. The Legislature overturned that veto, and the measure became law in 2020.

As reported by WBUR, the Minogue campaign put out a statement that said, “Mike Minogue cannot and will not change the law,” without elaborating beyond that.

In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned abortion as a national right, making state law even more critical. Since then, Governor Maura Healey has made the strengthening of abortion protections for patients and providers even more of a signature cause.

Last week’s ruling by a federal appeals court in New Orleans, which halted access to a common abortion drug, mifepristone, through the mail for telehealth patients, once again underscored the political uncertainty around abortion access. Healey, who joined other Democrat-led states in stockpiling the drug to guard against a potential ban of it, quickly issued a statement that said she would “keep standing up to efforts by President Trump and his allies to roll back reproductive rights.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court temporarily restored access to mifepristone. Both sides have a week to respond.

While Minogue can try to argue that abortion is protected in Massachusetts, and there’s nothing he can or would do to change that, these are unpredictable times for reproductive rights. It’s a key issue that puts him at odds with many Massachusetts voters.

His first campaign ad since the GOP convention that endorsed him introduces him as “a new kind of governor.”

By Massachusetts standards, he certainly would be different. He’s much closer to Trump than other recent Republican candidates, having hosted that Vance fund-raiser and donated nearly $1 million to Trump and MAGA candidates in 2024.

Of Massachusetts’ 5 million voters, 1.2 million are registered Democrats, and 423,387 are registered Republicans. Unenrolled or independent voters, who make up 3.2 million registered voters, are key to winning statewide office. Given that Trump’s overall approval rating in the state is about 33 percent, Minogue’s Trump connections are not going to help him much with that crowd.

Polling also shows that the vast majority of Massachusetts voters strongly support abortion rights and are more likely to support elected officials if they work to advance legislation that will prevent the government from interfering with personal decisions about pregnancy.

Minogue will no doubt want to talk about transgender athletes, illegal immigration, the cost of housing and utilities, and the overall issue of economic growth. His allies are also trying to drive Shortsleeve out of the race, and in the WCVB interview, Minogue argued that the overwhelming endorsement he got from the roughly 1,800 delegates who attended the convention shows where the Republican Party is in Massachusetts right now.

And so it does. But is that where most Massachusetts voters are?

There’s a legitimate debate to be had, for sure, about the economic direction of the state.

But to have it, Minogue will have to convince voters to look past his Trump association and his “pro-life” self-description. Meanwhile, a fellow Republican is calling him unelectable — music to Healey’s ears.

Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her @joan_vennochi.

Thousands joined Project Bread’s 58th annual Walk for Hunger on Sunday to combat what organizers called a critical and rising problem of food insecurity in Massachusetts.

“There is no reason any person in Massachusetts should not be able to put food on the table,” said Project Bread President and CEO Erin McAleer. “And yet, more people are struggling now than ever. Every one of us has a role to play in making a difference, and the Walk for Hunger is the perfect opportunity to do just that.”

The walk — representing the nation’s oldest continually running pledge walk, according to Project Bread — raised the targeted $1 million in funds to fight hunger in the state as participants made their way around the family-friendly and accessible 3-mile loop around Boston Common.

Project Bread, which organizes the fundraiser along with over 600-member Make Hunger History Coalition, noted that the walk is an “immediate opportunity” for people to take action as food insecurity rises in Massachusetts.

In Massachusetts, 40% of households are experiencing food insecurity, the organization said, and “rising food prices and potential changes to federal nutrition programs, including SNAP, threaten to deepen the challenge.” Local organizations in Greater Boston are continuing to prepare for additional strain, they added.

Project Bread joined food aid organizations and public officials to meet an “impossible task” as the government shutdown temporarily cut off SNAP benefits last November, at the same time as an estimated 3.5 million have lost SNAP benefits nationwide due to policy changes under the Trump administration last July.

The 3,500 participants Sunday represented 216 towns across Massachusetts, while additional walkers from 23 states and five countries participated virtually, organizers said. The event featured live music, food vendors, games, a cooking demonstration, and remarks from local leaders on the Common.

The funds raised support Project Bread’s “comprehensive approach to food security,” tackling areas like policy advocacy, prevention strategies and more, as well as supporting the work of 68 anti-hunger organizations who participate in the event and keep 60% of the funds they generate.