3/24/2003 PHILADELPHIA, Pa.— The women’s open crew kicked off its spring season on the blazing fast waters of the Schuylkill River against EAWRC foes Penn and Navy.  Only three events were contested by the Hoyas and although there were no wins for their efforts, the Hoya crews raced very competitively.

The frosh women began the day’s racing in which the Penn frosh jumped out to an early lead to leave Navy and Georgetown battling for second place.  Navy maintained a slight advantage through most of the race until the Hoyas began their sprint with about 300 meters to go.  Their sprint moved them past Navy to secure second place by less than one second, but still nearly twelve seconds behind winner Penn.

The Varsity 4 was a dual race between Georgetown and Penn, which, despite the final margin, was closely contested until about 400 meters to go.  Penn had the better start off the line gaining as much as a one length advantage in the first 500.  Through the second 500 the Hoya crew worked its way back to even with Penn and raced them fairly evenly through the third 500.  As the crews moved into their sprints, the Penn crew was able to pick-up more speed and row away from the Hoyas for the final margin of seven seconds.

In the feature race of Varsity 8s, the scenario played out similarly to that in the frosh race.  Although all three crews got off the line fairly evenly, the Penn varsity gradually pulled away from Georgetown and Navy to leave them battling for second place.  Georgetown maintained a slight advantage of two to three seats throughout most of the race, but Navy was able to power through them in the last 15-20 strokes of the race to finish 1.4 seconds ahead.  Penn won in 5:48.8 followed by Navy in 5:54.3 and Georgetown in 5:55.7.

Detailed results for these races can be found at http://www.row2k.com.

Georgetown hosts the University of Delaware and North Carolina on Saturday, March 29 on the Potomac.