June 19, 2007

Washington, D.C. - After a very strong showing at the IRA Collegiate National Championship, the Georgetown Lightweight Crew will compete in the prestigious 2007 Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. The event will take place from July 4-8 and the races themselves consist of head-to-head, dual races over a course of 2,112 meters (1.3 miles). Georgetown's lightweights last competed at Henley in 2004 advancing to the final 16, knocked out by the eventual winner, Hollandia Roeiclub of Holland.

During the spring season, the Georgetown lightweights earned victories over Penn, Navy, Columbia and Princeton. After a sixth place finish in a very tight field at the Eastern Sprints, the Hoyas prepared well for the most important race, the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships. The Blue and Gray finished three one-hundredths of a second behind Harvard, and only one second behind defending champion Cornell, to come away with the bronze medal. In the grand final, the crew bested Eastern Sprints winner Dartmouth, as well as Navy and Yale.

Under the leadership of first year Lightweight Head Coach Evans Liolin, who brought medal-winning credentials as the former Head Coach of the Men's United States Junior National Team, the Hoyas are well positioned for international competition. The crew is anchored by Crash-B erg champion and senior team co-captain Michael McGrath (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Prep) along with seniors James Curley (Los Altos Hills, Calif./Bellarmine College Prep), Patrick Sheridan (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shady Side Academy), and Thomas Byrnes (New Vernon, N.J./Delbarton); juniors Phil Cimbak (Ambler, Pa./St. Joseph's Prep) and William Quirk (Needham, Mass./Roxbury Latin School), and sophomores Tim Freeman (Portland, Ore./Jesuit), Scott Dotto (Westwood, N.J./Don Bosco Prep), John Connolly (Lafayette Hill, Pa./St. Joseph's Prep), Ryan Madsen (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius), and cox Kevin Francolini (Holmdel, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy).

On the Team:

"This team is a driven group of high-integrity individuals and they've done an admirable job accelerating their learning curve during the time we've had together," Liolin said. "Henley is a wonderful reward for their bold performance at the IRA. More importantly, it is an opportunity to extend their ability at the height of the season."

"One aspect about Georgetown Lightweight Men's Crew that stands out is that we always pit ourselves against the top lightweight crews in the nation," Francolini said. "With this year's bronze medal at the IRA, we have medaled at the IRA three out of the last five years."

"We started this season with a close loss to Princeton but after a few weeks of intense training, we showed resilience by defeating Navy and then settled the score with Princeton a week later," Connolly said. "After a somewhat disappointing finish at Sprints, we put together two great races at IRA's and won the bronze medal. This crew has been through a lot together and I believe that we will continue to improve and be a top contender in the Temple Challenge Cup."

About Henley:

The draw is a public event that will take place in the Henley town hall. For each event the names of all selected crews are placed on pieces of paper, which are then drawn at random from the Grand Challenge Cup. These crews are then placed on pre-determined positions on the draw chart, as far apart as possible. The remaining qualifying crews are then drawn from the cup, filling in from the top of the draw chart downwards, until all places have been filled.

Each event in the regatta takes the form of a knockout competition, with each race consisting of two crews racing side by side up the Henley course. The course is marked out by two lines of booms (wooden bars which float on the water, secured between vertical poles), which are placed along the river to form a straight course 2,112 meters long. The course is wide enough to allow two crews to race down with a few meters between them. As such it is not uncommon for inexperienced steersmen or coxswains to crash into the booms, possibly costing their crew the race.

The regatta was first staged in 1839 and proved so successful that it was expanded the next year from one day to two the next year. As the regatta's popularity has grown it has further expanded: to three days in 1886, four days in 1906 and five days in 1986. The regatta has been known as Henley Royal Regatta since 1851, when Prince Albert became the first royal patron. Since his death, every reigning monarch has agreed to be the patron.

The race begins at the downstream end of Temple Island, where the crews attach to a pair of pontoons. The race umpire will then call out the names of the two crews and start them when they are both straight and ready. Each crew is assigned to row on either the 'Bucks' (Buckinghamshire) or 'Berks' (Berkshire) side of the race course. The coxswains or steersmen are expected to keep their crew on the allocated side of the course at all times during the race, else they risk disqualification. The only exception is when a crew leads by a sizeable margin and is not deemed by the umpire to be impeding the trailing crew.

The Georgetown Lightweights will depart for England on Sunday, June 24. For more information on the race and the corresponding events visit http://www.hrr.co.uk/index.htm and www.row2k.com