6/6/2003  

CAMDEN, N.J.—The Varsity Lightweight Women’s Eight placed fourth at the 101^st Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta on Saturday, 31 May.  The IRA Regatta hosts the national championship event for lightweight women at Cooper River Park in Camden, NJ.  The fourth place finish is the best yet by the Georgetown lightweight program on the national stage.

 The Hoyas entered the spring racing season ranked fifth in the pre-season national poll and appeared to warrant that ranking with an early season win over then seventh ranked Delaware.  Following a mid-season regatta that featured eight of the top ten ranked crews in the country, Georgetown not only failed to qualify for the grand final, but finished second in the petite final.  Following that dismal performance against the deep field of crews, Georgetown fell to tenth in the national poll.

 In what could have been a downward turning point in the season, the lightweights continued to work as hard as they had all year focusing their sights on Eastern Sprints—their rowing league championship.  Of the four lightweight programs in the Sprints, the three other than Georgetown were ranked first through third nationally.  The goal for Sprints was simply to close the gap between Georgetown and the other three from their earlier mid-season meeting.

 As expected the Hoyas finished fourth behind Princeton, Radcliffe, and Wisconsin respectively.  While the gap had been narrowed, the margins still loomed large.  To find more speed for nationals, Coach Jimmy King looked to Coach Rebecca Besant F’99 and her Sprints winning frosh lightweight eight.

 Several rowers from the frosh lightweight eight were invited to join the varsity crew in training for the IRA which occurred just two weeks following Sprints.  After a week of training and seatracing, a new line-up emerged.  While there was belief among all that the new line-up was faster, the question of course was “How much faster?”

 Racing at the IRA began on Friday for the lightweight women.  The winners of the morning heats would advance directly to Saturday’s final while the remaining crews raced in the repechages that same afternoon.  With number two ranked Radcliffe and three ranked Wisconsin in their morning heat, the Georgetown crew raced very conservatively.  Placing a distant fourth in their morning heat, the question of boat speed still remained entering the afternoon rep.

 Four of the five crews in the rep would advance to the final while the fifth place crew would be eliminated from competition.  This is the race where the Hoyas would be able to gauge just how much speed they had gained in the past week of training.  The Hoyas jumped off the line quickly and to an early lead on the field.  Focusing primarily on establishing a strong rhythm, the crew found its swing and maintained its lead throughout most of the race.  Without a need to win the rep, the crew allowed the trailing boats to close the gap and were beat to the line by Wisconsin by 1.3 seconds.  Stanford followed the Hoyas by only 0.7 second and Purdue claimed the final qualifying spot just another second back.  The four crews finished within three seconds of one another—less than one boat length.

 Entering the grand final on Saturday, the Hoyas were confident they had gained enough speed to run with all but the top two crews, Princeton and Radcliffe, who had clearly separated themselves from the field throughout the season’s racing.  But just as the Hoyas had eased up a bit near the end of the preceding day’s rep, they were sure the other crews had as well.  Only in the final would the Hoyas truly know where they stood in relation to the others.

 The grand final was raced on flat water and into a very slight cross headwind.  The Hoyas started in lane two with Stanford--to whom they had lost by ten seconds at the San Diego Crew Classic—to their left and undefeated Princeton on their right.  Princeton immediately jumped out on the field, but the Hoyas went with Radcliffe in lane five to lead the remainder of the pack.  Radcliffe gradually moved away from Georgetown through the second five hundred meters of the race.  The Hoyas could clearly see Stanford behind in the lane alongside them, but Wisconsin was on the opposite side of the course chipping away at the Hoyas’ lead. 

 As the crews crossed the fifteen hundred-meter mark, Princeton was clearly in control, but closely followed by Radcliffe.  As Georgetown and Wisconsin crossed the mark, Wisco was just nosing its bow ahead of the Hoyas.  Stanford and Purdue were then trailing open water behind.  The Badgers continued to move out on the Hoyas through the sprint to the line finishing about three seconds ahead, or about three-quarters of a boat length.  Princeton repeated as national champions finishing about three-quarters of a boat length ahead of runner-up Radcliffe.  Stanford and Purdue placed fifth and sixth respectively.

 While the Hoyas were disappointed in not medaling, they had good reason to be proud of their performance.  For the first time, the Hoyas were competitive at the national championships.  Those large margins at Sprints had been greatly reduced and they had defeated one of the crews to whom they had lost substantially earlier in the year.  These Hoyas were led by seniors Renee Cherkezian N’03, Kara Ethier C’03 (Captain), Caitlin Huntley C’03 (coxswain), and Stephanie Kinzel C’03.  Joining them were junior Allison Dryer C’04 and sophomores Jessica Barker C’05 and Bobbi Thomason C’05 who also raced in the varsity boat throughout the spring.  Completing the crew were frosh Nicole Borsje B’06 and Caitlin McKenna C’06 who joined the varsity after Sprints.

 

Grand Final Results

6:56.1  Princeton

6:59.2  Radcliffe

7:02.3  Wisconsin

7:05.4  Georgetown

7:11.5  Stanford

7:12.3  Purdue

 

Complete racing results for the 101^st IRA Regatta can be found at http://www.row2k.com/results.