Lehigh University Athletics
Three crews advance to Saturday's semifinals
5/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Rowing, Women's Rowing
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PHILADELPHIA – Lehigh opened competition at the 2009 Dad Vail Regatta on Friday and the Mountain Hawks advanced three crews to Saturday’s semifinals, including the men’s varsity 8 and freshmen 8 and the women’s varsity 8. The men’s and women’s second varsity 8 crews also had very strong showings, as they came within seconds of qualifying for their respective finals.
“I’m very excited about our performance today,” Lehigh Director of Rowing Liz Meltzer commented. “Having three crews advance to Saturday is great and we’re anxious to see what they can do tomorrow. The men’s and women’s second varsity crews also had great races today; I thought they gave it everything they had. Overall this was a nice way for us to open up down here.”
The men’s varsity 8 crew raced its way to an impressive ninth place finish out of 31 entries in its opening race as the Mountain Hawks crossed in a time of 4:06.963. Lehigh bested crews from Colgate, Delaware, Temple, Drexel, Saint Joseph’s, Florida, Minnesota, Lafayette, Alabama, and Maryland among others and will race at 7:14 AM on Saturday versus Drexel, Rochester, Fordham, Colgate and Marietta.
The second varsity 8 finished less than one second out of the top six, which would have given the Mountain Hawks a spot in the finals. Lehigh finished in 4:35.357, which was narrowly behind Jacksonville (4:35.055), but it did place the Brown and White ahead of Saint Joseph’s, Bucknell, Minnesota, Ohio University and Ohio State to name a few.
The men’s freshmen 8 posted a top-15 finish in its race as the Mountain Hawks finished in 4:35.415 to defeat crews from Purdue, UMass, Fordham, Villanova, UConn, Boston College, Cincinnati, Buffalo, George Mason, Penn State and Maryland among others in a field of 30. Lehigh will now face North Carolina, Marietta, Drexel, Georgia Tech and Emory in the semifinals beginning at 9:52 AM.
In the women’s varsity 8 race, the Brown and White earned a spot in Saturday’s races with an 18th place showing out of 30 crews. The Mountain Hawks crossed in a time of 4:51.529 to defeat the likes of Army, West Virginia, Villanova, Ohio State, La Salle, Penn State, Stony Brook and Ohio University. Lehigh will take to the water at 7:21 AM on Saturday and face Dayton, Sacramento, Grand Valley, Saint Joseph’s and Alabama.
The second varsity 8 crew just missed a spot in the finals as the Mountain Hawks crossed in seventh place, two seconds out of a top-six finish which would have advanced Lehigh to Saturday. The Brown and White finished in a time of 5:18.455, placing in front of Delaware, Saint Joseph’s, Alabama, George Mason, Penn State, Fordham and Florida.
The women’s freshmen 8 finished its race in a time of 5:20.793, which placed the Mountain Hawks in 22nd place out of 32 entries.
Action on the Schuylkill River resumes early Saturday morning and will wrap up in the early evening.
