Race Tomorrow and More Press

In a rare mid-week dual, Stanford will be racing Santa Clara tomorrow in Los Gatos. This is a bit of a re-match as the Cardinal and the Broncos met up a few weeks ago at the Sacramento Invitational. Racing in the heavy eight event, Stanford finished just 9 seconds ahead of Santa Clara, while in the light four, Stanford was nearly 35 seconds ahead of the Santa Clara crew. This should be a good race as SC will certainly be looking for revenge.

Lehigh's gold medal winning lightweights took the headline of the Mountain Hawks' Murphy Cup press release. Also making Murphy Cup headlines were Villanova's lights for the light four's performance. It's nice to see the Wildcat lightweights back in the news.

Duquesne's press release notes the lightweights' fine performance against Dayton, listing the four's victory as well as the eight's win in the second of two races. Speaking of Dayton, the student newspaper has a nice season preview, which notes the Flyers' nice finishes last year.

Spring Break Races Last Week

Buffalo scrimmaged Dayton and Tulsa in Oak Ridge, TN last week, taking two (eights) from Dayton and splitting two (fours) with Tulsa. Buffalo beat Dayton by 8 and 11 seconds over 1,500 meters. The Tulsa four, which had a pretty good HOCR, beat Buffalo by 4 seconds in the first race while trailing by 8 seconds in the second race. Buffalo had some success in lightweight races last year, and it's good to see them back in the fold this year.

2007 Season Preview - University of Dayton

As in-state rival Ohio State begins its first season under a new coach, Dayton begins its last season under coach Mike Farrey. Coach Farrey tells me that the first race he'll likely race a light eight will be the Knecht Cup (unless someone shows up in OakRidge during spring break). There are, however, two races scheduled for Dayton prior to Knecht.

On March 24th the Flyers race Duquesne, followed by Cincinnati, Indiana, and Eastern Michigan on the 31st. Last year Dayton's lights raced as the 2V in the latter race so perhaps they'll get some racing in this year as well.

On April 14th the Flyers head to New Jersey for the Knecht Cup. This is a critical race for all of the obvious reasons, and even more so for Dayton. Coach Farrey will look to this race as an early indication of where the light eight stands. A dismal showing here could mean a shortened season for the boat. A dismal showing, however, is not something I expect. This is a relatively early race and I would be surprised if Dayton didn't at least show enough speed to make the rest of the season interesting. last year the Flyers made the grand final, finishing sixth, a result which turned out to be a pretty good indicator of where they would end the season.

A week after Knecht comes the A10 championships. Dayton is the defending A10 champion, having bested URI last year. With URI's possible demise, it's not clear who could step up to challenge Dayton. This is an unfortunate situation for this championship because many teams who boat a light eight early (e.g. St. Joe's and UMass) have often decided by this point that they can't be competitive and don't enter, leaving what looks to be a shallow field. In reality, the A10 championships are a self selected field of the A10's best (I'll have more on this phenomenon in a later post).

Following the A10s, Dayton heads to Philadelphia for the Dad Vail on May 11th. Dayton is also the (two-time) defending Dad Vail Champion and here's hoping there's a nice lightweight field for Dayton to take on this year. Following Dad Vail comes IRAs at the end of the month. Last year was the second time Dayton raced at IRAs (2001 was the first that I know of) and they finished 8th, an excellent way to end the season.

Dayton has five athletes returning from the IRA eight and three returning from the A10 and Dad Vail eight. The Flyers are young this year and will be looking to a senior and two juniors for leadership. Coach Farrey expects the speed of the boat to depend on how well the sophomores step up.

Dayton has had some good seasons these past couple of years and Coach Farrey should be proud of what he's done with the program. I think Dayton has played the lightweight game just right. During the season they race lightweight when they can and make a point of racing the championships. As a result they are defending A10 and Dad Vail champs. In earlier years they realized that they weren't ready to have an impact at IRAs and raced where they could be competitive, gradually building up their reputation. Although there will be up and down years, they are now ready to seriously challenge for a spot in the grand final at IRAs. Dad Vail programs measure themselves against the Flyers and IRA programs know better than to take them lightly. Despite their youth, I expect that Dayton will continue to uphold their reputation this year.

(Calendar updated)

Dayton Too...

Dayton is also sending a new lineup to IRAs. Head Coach Mike Farrey said, "It is hard for us to get a realistic gage of where our speed is currently because this lineup has never rowed together in a regatta. However, with different lineups we finished in the finals of the Knecht Cup and won both the Atlantic 10 Championship and the Dad Vail."

Dad Vail - Dayton and Nova Southeastern Win Championships

As expected, the light four final at Dad Vail was a tight finish, with the top three boats within 3 seconds and change of each other. Nova Southeastern continued its tear, winning by 1 second over Pitt, with Virginia Tech another 2 seconds back. Lawrence, Georgia, and Buffalo rounded out the grand final field. As this race approached the 500 meter mark it was impossible to tell if any of the top three boats held an advantage. All the separation seemed to come as they moved through the island with Nova opening a bit on Pitt and Pitt opening a bit more on VT. At the top of the island it seemed clear that Nova had given this race everything they had to give and were desperately looking for the finish line. Pitt was poised to reel them in, but was running out of water. The crowd, anticipating a Pitt sprint, waited for the Panthers' rate to come up, but it never quite did. Pitt closed, but not enough, and Nova hung on for the victory. Virginia Tech, rolling down lane one was making their own stealth attack, but didn't have enough left to make any real headway. This was a hard fought race and the fact that the top three finishers all but had their tongues dragging in the water as they crossed the finish line made it all the more obvious. Of course, it's not quite fair to characterize Nova as "hanging on" because they took this race to the rest of the field and won it. When the field was tight, they cranked it up and moved away from the pack, making everyone else try to catch them. Lawrence, Georgia, and Buffalo all finished respectably and, although out of the medals, could take solace in the fact that they were 4th, 5th, and 6th out of 20 boats entered.


As I mentioned in my last post, I really hadn't seen results for Nova SE before so they were a surprise to me. A reader noted that they raced a UCF four early in the year and although they lost, they were fast even then. If we look at the final last year and this year, only Pitt was in both. That kind of turnover makes for exciting regattas.

Speaking of Pitt, the last time I wrote about them I was wondering what happened to them at Knecht. A silver at Vails is what I call a nice recovery. No doubt they were at least momentarily unhappy with second, but if they think about it they'll recognize a nice achievement.

In between thunderstorm delays the V8 race went off with Dayton, Lehigh, and Villanova in the field. The final times show a 5 second difference between 1st and 2nd, but it looked like Dayton was in cruise control as they came over the line. Again, Villanova and Lehigh had respectable races, but it looked like Dayton had more to give. I think this was a case of a program who has put some focus on lightweights racing against boats of opportunity. A great race here would've been Dayton and Bucknell, but Bucknell has other priorities (more on that later).

The Dad Vail was marred by rain delays today, which resulted in the regatta committee forgoing the traditional awarding of medals at the medal dock after the race in favor of a simple handover to a team representative. This was a shame and was unnecessary. The sun shone brightly as the regatta officials checked their lightning detectors (I kid you not), determined that there was still danger, and continued to delay the races. Even with the delay, however, it's hard to see why medals couldn't have been awarded to crews at the dock. Nonetheless, the races otherwise were well run and the weather was surprisingly good. And best of all, they actually held lightweight races.

Dayton Concentrates

This release from Dayton makes me feel good about my rank of seven (not twelve, as the coaches did) for the Flyers. It notes that they will be racing the Cincinnati, Eastern Michigan, and Indiana heavyweights this weekend, followed by the Knecht Cup next weekend. The most interesting statement is a quote from Coach Mike Farrey who says, "After the conference regatta we will begin concentrating on our lightweight eight that will race at Dad Vail and IRA's." Yeah, I just don't think that's the number 12 boat in the country. URI was tied with Dayton and the release I noted below also makes me feel good about ranking them higher.

2006 Season Preview - University of Dayton

Dayton had perhaps its most successful year last year, winning the lightweight varsity eight at Dad Vail. I wish they had gone on to race at IRAs, but I assume there was a scheduling conflict of some sort that didn't allow it. Dayton enters Spring 2006 as the school to beat among Dad Vail competitors.

The Flyers open the season March 25 at home against Duquesne, who has raced lightweight boats the last two years. This race should be a nice tune up to start the season. Next up are Cincinnati, Eastern Michigan, and Indiana. I don't think any of those programs has lightweights, although I seem to recall that Eastern Michigan was talking about adding them not too long ago. The first real test for Dayton will come at the Knecht Cup. As I've mentioned, this race has become a great event for lightweights as the top crews in the country usually compete and I think this year is no exception. This will give the Flyers an early read on where they stand.

Dayton then gets into its championship season as two weeks after Knecht is the A-10 championship. Dayton will be the crew to beat here, although URI might put on a good show, and I just have a feeling that St. Joe's has a lightweight surprise or two up its sleeve. Three weeks after A-10 is Dad Vail. Only time will tell who actually shows up at Dad Vail, but it's guaranteed not to be a cakewalk. Despite the sometimes low number of entries at Vails, as I've noted before, the Vails lightweight eight was a bit of an anomaly in 2005, given that the times were much closer to the heavy boats than one might expect. Dayton will be the crew to beat, but they'll have their hands full, even without UCF. After Vails comes IRAs and as it is listed on their schedule, it looks like Dayton plans to race. I expect they'll earn their attendance and should put in a good show.

Dayton was a relative newcomer to the top ranks of lightweight rowing last year. Their inability to race at IRAs robbed them of an opportunity to see if they really deserved membership in the Big Dog Club. This is the year for the Flyers to step it up. They tasted victory last year and know that it's sweet. The only thing more motivating than remembering what a gold medal feels like around your neck is wondering what one feels like. Those crews chasing Dayton are wondering. This is the year for Dayton to pull out all the stops - they CAN compete with the top crews, but WILL they?

Dayton Notes Lightweights' Success

A University of Dayton press release listed the lightweight eight's achievement of reaching a #6 national ranking in the USRowing poll in 2005 (also their final ranking in FITD's Best in Show!). Somehow they missed the fact that they won Dad Vail!

Dad Vail Redux

After finishing 1,2 at Dad Vails last spring, Dayton and Ohio State added a lightweight 8+ event to their fall dual race. This no doubt spiced things up for the race as Ohio State saw an opportunity for revenge. Alas, it was not to be as Dayton won the 2500 meter race by 44 seconds. A decisive margin to be sure, but a fall margin. This has the makings of a nice little in-state rivalry.

Dayton Looks to Continue Last Year's Success

Dayton's lightweights were undefeated last spring and one of this year's captains is a lightweight. Looks like they're giving lightweights some respect at Dayton.

Speaking of Dad Vail

USROWING RANKS FLYER LIGHTWEIGHTS 6TH
Dayton's lightweights won the Dad Vail in 2005 and they had to have been the happiest boat on the river that day. I'm not sure if Dayton has ever raced this event before, but it was a great win for that program. The rowers couldn't stop smiling and they looked like they might float all the way back to Ohio. Hopefully this will give lightweight rowing some momentum at Dayton so the school can continue to put out competitive crews. Dayton doesn't talk about lightweights all that much, which makes it seem like they'll boat an eight only if they happen to have eight fast lighweight women. Maybe now they'll make it a bit more of a priority.