Indiana University Athletics
Indiana Rowing Hosts Louisville in Saturday Scrimmage
10/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
Oct. 16, 2008
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana Rowing welcomes the Louisville Cardinals to Lake Lemon for a scrimmage on Saturday, October 18, beginning at approximately 9 a.m. ET. Varsity and Novice boats will take part in the event, which will include a three-mile head race followed by 3-4 four-minute pieces.
Indiana Head Coach Steve Peterson is looking forward to the opportunity for his team to get in a good workout against a solid program.
"Nothing makes a student-athlete work harder than having a rival sitting in a crew next to them at the start of a piece," he pointed out. "On top of that, the early season workouts have shown a marked improvement in fitness in our student-athletes over the last year, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are faster in the boats. Doing work against another quality crew is really the only way to know if you are headed in the right direction. The fact that this is so early in the year will tell us if we are doing the right things, or if we need to work on something different, and it is still early enough in the year to do that."
According to Peterson, Louisville will provide a great test for the Hoosiers.
"They have been a top 20 program the past few years and they should be again this year," said Peterson of the Cardinals. "They are always very aggressive in their racing, so even though it is early, I expect them to be quick."
Indiana Novice Coach Josh Adam is also looking forward to the chance to test his squad's early speed and skill against that of Louisville.
"This weekend is a check in on our development process," Adam explained. "I am expecting the IU Novice women to go out and display the skills that we have been working to master in practice within the actual race setting. To the extent that we are able to perform those skills as well as we have in practice, we will have a successful regatta."
The season thus far has shown great promise for the Hoosiers.
"This has been a tremendous fall," said Peterson. "At the varsity level, the early season testing we do has shown that the athletes came back in much better shape than they have been in the past. In addition to that, we have a much larger squad this year, which has everyone fighting harder to get into the top crews, which will only make the whole team stronger. At the novice level, it is very similar to what we are seeing at the varsity level: a lot of very good athletes, competing very hard for the seats in the top boats."
