Lehigh rowers post strong effort at Head of the Schuylkill

Saturday, October 30

Schuykill River

9:00:00 AM

Lehigh University

Head of the Schuylkill Regatta

Lehigh rowers post strong effort at Head of the Schuylkill

10/30/2010 10:31:00 PM | Men's Rowing, Women's Rowing

PHILADELPHIA – The Lehigh rowing team wrapped up its second weekend of action on Saturday when it competed in the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta in Philadelphia. The Mountain Hawks placed three boats in the top half of the field, highlighted by a ninth-place finish in the Women's Open Four.

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Complete Schuylkill Results

The Mountain Hawks had multiple entries in numerous races, including the Women's Open Four where one boat, led by coxswain Paige Sutton, finished ninth with a time of 17:25.64. Lehigh's other boats placed 14th (17:54.95) and 16th (18:01.06), respectively, this in a field of 34.

“The Women's Open Four was the biggest improvement,” said head coach Brian Conley. “Coming from being 30th in the Head of Charles, then today, we were able to put forth three boats that were in the top 50 percent. That's a pretty huge improvement in a short amount of time.”

Lehigh's Men's Open Four boats impressed as well, finishing 15th (15:59.75), 18th (16:09.36) and 22nd (16:34.16), in a field of 30.

One challenge the Mountain Hawks faced was competing in multiple events.

“We had the varsity compete in multiple events today, so a lot of people doubled up in races, which is pretty tough to do,” said Conley. “What we discovered was in the earlier events, we were definitely able to compete with the better schools, but when we went to the second race later on in the afternoon, we made the realization that our fitness wasn't where it needed to be, which is what we'll focus on. It's something we've been working on since day one.”

Lehigh had one entry in both Open Championship Eights, with the women placing 29th (17:17.24) and the men coming in 13th (15:03.56).

Saturday was also the first time that many Mountain Hawks raced collegiately, as the Women's Frosh Eight placed 18th, while two men's entries finished 13th (15:58.59) and 14th (15:59.43), respectively.

“Especially for their first race, considering everyone else they raced against has raced at some point in the year, it was a very solid effort [for the freshmen],” said Conley. “They finished in the middle of the pack in both of their events. They learned a lot about the chaos that can happen on race day. They learned the difference between practice racing and race day racing and how to close that gap as much as possible.”

The Mountain Hawks return to action on Nov. 13 when they row in the Frostbite Regatta, also on the Schuylkill River.