March 29, 2003
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In one of only two home race dates this spring, the Hoyas outraced visiting crews from Delaware and North Carolina to claim victories in the Varsity 8 and the Varsity Lightweight 8 on the Potomac River in women?s crew. The University of Virginia also participated in the frosh/novice events and the varsity four.
A swift river current precluded standard use of stake boats, so floating starts were utilized for all events. Although not all races began precisely on the start line, as reflected by some of the winning times, the varsity eights did begin in the immediate proximity of the 2000-meter start. The varsity lightweights preceded the varsity openweights in the racing schedule and featured a match-up between the #5 ranked Hoyas and the #7 ranked Blue Hens of Delaware as determined in the USRowing Preseason Collegiate Coaches poll released earlier this week.
The Varsity Light 8 got off to a strong start immediately gaining seats on their lightweight counterparts in a race that also included the second varsity openweight crew of Delaware who had a faster start still. Settling into a racing cadence a bit higher than planned, the Hoya crew let it ride before gradually lengthening to their planned rate of 34. Racing into a building headwind, the lightweights were able to slowly but steadily pull away from the Delaware lightweights while trying to keep pace with the openweight crew over the middle thousand of the course. With about 250 to go, the Hoyas began their sprint closing steadily on the Delaware 2V, but it was too little too late to get the overall win. The Delaware 2V crossed the line first in a time of 6:54.6 overlapped by the Georgetown Varsity Light 8 at 6:58.3 followed by the Delaware Varsity Light 8 (7:04.7) open water behind by 6.4 seconds.
The wind continued to build for the varsity openweight race that matched Georgetown against Delaware and the University of North Carolina. Coming off the high strokes of the start the Hoyas held about a half-length lead over the Blue Hens with the Tar Heels just a couple of seats farther back. At the thousand-meter mark the Blue Hens made a strong push taking back two to three seats on the Hoyas, but then the Hoyas held firm to stop Delaware?s advancement. Exiting Key Bridge the Hoyas made a move of their own to take back a few seats, then a bit more. All the while the UNC Tar Heels kept pace with Delaware as well, about a third of a length down. Inside the five to go, Georgetown pushed the rate up to take perhaps another seat, but not much more. Across the line the Hoyas (6:56.1) held a 4.8 second margin over the Blue Hens (7:00.9) who were closely followed by the Tar Heels (7:02.7) just 1.8 seconds down to them.
In other racing the Frosh/Novice Light 8 made another strong showing, again in openweight competition, getting nipped at the line by Virginia (7:02.1) by just 0.4 seconds (Georgetown 7:02.5), both well ahead of third place Delaware (7:41.4) in the second eight event. For results of all events, please go to http://www.row2k.com/results.
Next week the Hoyas split-up as the Varsity 8 and Varsity Light 8 travel to San Diego for the Crew Classic on April 5 and 6 while the rest of the team travels to Boston to take on the crews of Boston University, MIT, and others.
