Indiana University Athletics
IU Hosts Home Race (3-31-04)
3/31/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
About the Regatta
The Hoosiers will race against Cincinnati, Dayton, Eastern Michigan, Louisville and North Carolina to open the spring season. The race will be a 2000m course on Lake Lemon in Bloomington, Ind.
The Hoosiers will be dedicating their new Varsity 8 shell the Chuck Crabb `73 in a ceremony at 8 a.m. in front of the boat house.
The first race, the Novice 4, will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 3.
Race Schedule
8:30 Coxswain Meeting
Time Event Schools Racing
9:30 Novice 4 Indiana, Dayton
9:45 Novice 4 UNC, Louisville
10:00 Novice 8 UNC, Eastern Michigan, Louisville
10:15 Novice 8 Indiana, Cincinnati, Dayton
10:30 Varsity 4 Indiana, Cincinnati
10:45 Varsity 4 Eastern Michigan, Dayton
11:00 2nd Varsity 8 Indiana, Cincinnati, Dayton
11:15 2nd Varsity 8 UNC, Eastern Michigan, Louisville
11:30 Varsity 8 UNC, Eastern Michigan
11:45 Varsity 8 Indiana, Cincinnati, Dayton
BREAK
12:45 Novice 4 Indiana, Louisville, UNC
1:00 2nd Novice 8 Cincinnati, Dayton, Dayton 2
1:15 Novice 8 Indiana, Eastern Michigan, Louisville
1:30 Novice 8 UNC, Cincinnati, Dayton
1:45 Varsity 4 Eastern Michigan, Cincinnati
2:00 Varsity 4 Indiana, Dayton
2:15 2nd Varsity 8 UNC, Cincinnati, Dayton
2:30 2nd Varsity 8 Indiana, Eastern Michigan, Louisville
2:45 Varsity 8 Indiana, Eastern Michigan
3:00 Varsity 8 UNC, Cincinnati, Dayton
For Race Results
Complete race results will be made available on the web at iuhoosiers.com following the event.
For more information contact staff assistant Danah Allen in the Media Relations office at (812) 856-0215 or the IU Rowing office at (812) 856-4485.
About the Opponents
Cincinnati opened its spring in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where it swept Drake and won the Varsity 4 against Dartmouth.
Dayton opened its spring season last weekend by winning all 11 races over Duquesne.
Eastern Michigan opened its spring by finishing behind Michigan, Michgan State, Notre Dame and Clemson.
Louisville has the most action this spring of the schools competing. Louisville has raced against Duke, Minnesota, Cincinnati, New Hampshire and Tennessee.
North Carolina has raced against Duke, Clemson and last weekend against Georgetown and Indiana.
The Spring Season is Underway
The Hoosier rowers opened the 2004 spring season with a road trip to Raleigh, N.C. Indiana rowed against the University of North Carolina and Georgetown on Lake Wheeler. The Hoosiers competed in five races on the morning, with the Varsity 8 posting a first place finish.
The Hoosiers had a strong performance after overcoming the adversity of what ended up as a 16-hour bus trip on Friday afternoon. Head coach Steve Peterson was pleased with the way the Hoosiers responded to have great races on Saturday.
"The Varsity 8 won a great race," Peterson said. "It is a huge step forward for them, because they were forced to overcome a tremendous amount of obstacles and rowed a gutsy race."
The crews stayed focused on their task at hand, which was to race well against the UNC and Georgetown crews in their season opener. And race well they did.
However, throughout the morning, the Indiana women's crews found themselves coming up just short as they finished second in four of the five events they were racing in (Second Varsity 8, Varsity 4, Novice 8 and the Novice 4).
In the first event of the day, the Novice 4 boat finished 20 seconds behind UNC, posting a time of 8:19.78. In the Varsity 4, the squad finished just one and a half seconds behind Georgetown, posting a time of 7:54.42. The Novice 8 finished in 7:07.52. The second Varsity 8 boat finished 10 seconds behind UNC.
The Hoosiers were never out of their races, rowing stroke for stroke with UNC and Georgetown, but they were not were able to finish their opponents off in the closing strokes. All could be due to the fatigue from the bus trip, or the fact that we were the only crew not to have raced yet this spring. Second was not bad, especially since the goal of having a solid body of the race was achieved by all crews.
Varsity 8 Victorious
In the final race of the day, the Indiana Varsity 8, comprised of coxswain Sarah Meyer, Amanda Walker, Lauren Anderson, Ashley Airis, Carly Schilling, Laura Lazaridis, Kelly Schuiling, Line Espedal and Elizabeth Benoit, would break the string of four second place finishes.
The race began with Indiana and UNC jumping out to a quick half boat length lead over Georgetown. The Hoosier women began to build a lead through the first 500 meter mark and increase it to a half boat length over UNC and a full boat length over Georgetown as they crossed the 1000. Both UNC and Georgetown would mount charges through the next 500 meters, but staying long and calm, the Indiana women were able to repel their advances. As the three crews approached the final 500 meters of the race, UNC and Georgetown began to attempt to close the gap on Indiana. Although they were able to make small moves, neither was able to make any serious challenge, and the Indiana crew increased their advantage as they sprinted to the finish line first in a time of 6:37.50, with UNC finishing second and open water back to Georgetown in third.
Looking Ahead
Indiana travels to Indianapolis, Ind. to race against Notre Dame and Purdue on Saturday, April 10.
