Upcoming Races
It's easy to write off this weekend before Sprints and Dad Vails as down time, but a look at the schedule says otherwise.
Let's start with the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships. The Virginia Tech light eight, which has been looking for a fight for the past couple of weeks, finally gets one in the form of the Penn State lights. I can't remember Virginia Tech racing a light eight yet this year so I'll be anxious to see how they do against the Nittany Lions, a crew that took second at the Murphy Cup.
The light four has a four boat field with entries from Carnegie Mellon, Susquehanna, Duquesne, and Virginia Commonwealth. Duquesne and CMU were headed for a showdown (Duquesne beat CMU by 0.2 seconds at Knecht) at the WV Governor's Cup, but weather forced a cancellation. They'll get another chance here with the Dukes coming off that record setting performance at A-10s. George Mason sponsors this event so I'm surprised that their four isn't entered. [A reader notes that George Mason has entered their light four, which was just over a second ahead of CMU and Duquesne at Knecht. This will be a great race!]
In Michigan, MACRAs will run light eight and light four events. In the eight, Ohio State takes on Eastern Michigan (this event is listed as JV/Light, so EMU may be a heavy boat), while there's a full six boat light four event. The fours entered are Cleveland State, Lawrence, Mercyhurst, Northwestern, Ohio State, and Chicago. OSU should be strong while Lawrence defeated Northwestern earlier in the year at the Clemson Sprints. This is a race for Dad Vail fours to watch since I suspect Lawrence may be a sleeper entry while Northwestern won the regatta two years ago.
The ECAC Metro regatta only has a two boat light eight race, but it should be a doozy. UMass, presumably in its non-novice incarnation, takes on Buffalo. Buffalo is on the verge of breaking into the top five while UMass was able to upend MIT. This is an important race for both of these crews as they (hopefully) head into Dad Vails. If UMass has its top boat on the water, I see this as the best race of the weekend, with the CMU vs Duquesne four showdown coming in a close second.
5 comments:
In fact George Mason is entering the Light 4+ at MACCs. Their boat is in lane 1 on the official schedule (as of 05/02). This will make the Light 4 at MACCs an even more exciting race.
I have noticed a lot of talk about UMASS having novices in the boat and that being used as an excuse for their performance. It should be noted then that the Buffalo crew that beat them at Metros has three novice walk on's in it and three other girls who have only started rowing in fall '05.
Va Tech rowed a light 8+ at John Hunter Regatta placing second behind UGA and ahead of Auburn.
I wouldn't be too harsh on the UMass novice explanation. I think that was simply a statement of the difference between the two UMass light eights. That UMass boat really just jumped into the mix at the MIT race, and followed that up with a very different performance at A-10s. I think we were all just trying to figure out what was going on. Turns out that the boat that races depends on whether the four can double into the eight. In any case, both boats raced hard and well at Metros and Buffalo came out on top. Hopefully they'll get a chance to try for a repeat at Dad Vail.
As for Virginia Tech, of course they were at John Hunter. I just completely spaced that out, sorry.
The UB/UMass race was the highlight of the day. UB won soundly only to be snubbed at the medal stand. Don't know if it's because there were only 2 boats in the race or because they are "just" lightweights, but it was disappointing. They all work so hard, they deserve to be going for a medal.
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