April 17, 2007

Washington, D.C. - The Georgetown University women's crews were in action this past weekend as both the women's lightweights and heavyweights saw competition. The lightweights traveled to Cherry Hill, N.J. to compete in the Knecht Cup while the heavyweights stayed on the Potomac and took on George Washington for the Class of 1998 Cup.

Due to bad weather forecasted for Sunday, the schedule was condensed to run the entire regatta on Saturday. The Georgetown lightweight crews were involved in a combined eight heats throughout the day, including four final events.

Georgetown A improved their heat time by 8.2 seconds in order to finish fifth overall in the Freshman/Novice Four. The crew consisted of Laura Donaldson (Berkeley, Calif./Berkeley), Madeline Sarason (Concord, Mass./Concord Carlisle), Sarah Harwood (Princeton, N.J./The Lawrenceville School), Karin Bothwell (Boston, Mass./The Winsor School) and coxswain Erika Barger (Ormond Beach, Fla./Seabreeze).

Later in the day, GU's boat came in fourth during the final of the Freshman/Novice Lightweight Eight. The crew consisted of Donaldson, Sarason, Bothwell, Valerie Felix (Kennett Square, Pa./Archmere Academy), Madeline Sarason (Concord, Mass./Concord Carlisle), Katharine Thompson (Princeton, N.J./Stuart County Day School), Alex Vezina (Tallahassee, Fla./Leon), Christianne Persenaire (Phoenixville, Pa./Phoenixville Area), Claudia Daisley (Falls Church, Va./George Mason) and Stephanie Szary (Yardley, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie). After a slow start the crew raced very aggressive just missing a bronze medal.

In the Lightweight Four, Georgetown won their qualifying heat and then came in behind only Pittsburgh in the final, to gain the silver medal. The crew of Lauren Moldawer (Gainesville, Fla./Gainesville), Julia McCarthy (Narberth, Pa./Merion Mercy Academy), Jem Heinzel-Nelson (Allentown, N.J./Allentown) and Liz Kucharczyk (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) rowed a very impressive second thousand meters of the race to secure a silver medal.

In GU's final event of the day, the Hoyas improved their heat time by 18.7 seconds and finished second overall in the event, behind a very strong Wisconsin crew. Georgetown captured a second silver medal, and finished ahead of the same Radcliffe A boat that had beaten them in their qualifying heat by 11.3 seconds.

"The Wisconsin crew was very impressive technically and with the execution of their race plan," said Women's Lightweight Crew Coach Jim O'Conner. "Overall I was happy with how our girls raced. We improved the areas where we showed weakness against Radcliffe two weeks ago. The key now will be to continue to improve as we go through the season and make sure that we do not lose sight of our focus which is the IRA in June."

Also on Saturday, Georgetown's women's heavyweight crews competed against George Washington for the Class of 1998 Cup. GW was victorious in four of the five races while the Hoyas managed a victory in the Novice 4A with a time of 7:58.9. Georgetown had a chance to take the Freshman/Novice 8 but finished 1.8 seconds behind the GW boat, with a time of 7:18.6