PENNSAUKEN, N.J. (May 14, 2023) – The Rollins men's and women's rowing teams saw all seven boats finish 10th or better, highlighted by the Men's Novice 4 bringing home the silver medal at the 2023 Dad Vail Regatta.
Day One – Friday, May 12
The event started on Friday, with Rollins earning three grand final races, three second level finals and has one semi race on Saturday. The women's DII varsity 4 was slotted into an 8 AM race on Saturday to determine whether they would row for a medal in the grand finals or if they would have to settle for the petites. This boat posted the fourth-fastest time out of the 11 boat field in the time trials. The crew had to earn a top three spot in order to advance to the grand finals. This is crucial in the final rankings of DII schools for the boats that will be selected to the 2023 NCAA Championships. The women's varsity 8 race would have just as big of implications on the teams selection potential with their sights on lining up against Jefferson University for the first time this season. The event only had three boats entered but it is not the size of this event but the fact of who we lined up against. The women's novice four had two great races Friday between their time trial and semi and fell just three seconds short of making the grand finals. "Of course the women were disappointed not making the grand finals," said Head Coach
Shawn Pistor. "That being said, we are so pumped for the petites because there was just two seconds separating all six boats that are in Saturday's race. This is setting itself up to be an incredible race."
The men's teams earned a grand final berth in the Men's Pair as well as the Men's Novice 4 after their showing on Friday. Medals were a potential for both of these crews but they would need to put their best race of the season together which was exactly what the plan had been all along. The Men's Varsity 4 had their work cut out in the petite finals and the field proved to be on if the fastest fields in year. The men's lightweight varsity four fell one spot shy of making Saturday's grand finals. Fortunately, the light 4 had the opportunity to race again Saturday and see what they could put together against the Long Island crew.
Day Two – Saturday, May 13
Rollins had all seven boats finish 10th or better and the Men's Novice 4 brought home the SILVER MEDAL. Congrats to those guys…..they tried to rattle the winning crew, who had posted a faster time in the semis, by going out and getting ahead of them off the line. Western Ontario eventually got through our boat but Rollins held off the rest of the field to hang a silver medal around their necks. They were number two out of the 26-boat field. Here are the finishes of the rest of the Rollins boats.
M2-: Weston Hollman and
John Patrick McClear (4th out of 12)
WV8:
Maria Littman,
Alyssa Murphy,
Grace Oelrich,
Francesca Morgan-Tomascik,
Isabella Espino,
Olivia Prelog,
Catherine Mitchell,
Maria Gutierrez, and
Carolyn Darcy (3rd out of 3)
WDII 4:
Brianne Engel,
Lillian Groves,
Justine Hickey,
Emily Quezada, and
Erin Hughes (6th out of 10)
WN4:
Dinah Rofman,
Khloe Smith,
Nina Nikolic,
Sarah Monroy, and
Kendall Boardman (8th out of 14)
MV4:
Theodore Preaus,
Cooper Richart,
Timothy Edwards,
Fredrik Bang-Andreasen, and
James Cone (10th out of 27)
MLt4: Preaus,
Christian Sweeney,
Beau Christopher,
Nick Villamil, and
Jay Kineon (7th out of 8)
The men's pair had a heartbreaking race where they were in a solid second place for the duration of the race and had a couple errant strokes in the last 100m to fall back to 4th place and just two seconds out of the medals.
Each of the crews rowed their best races of the season and posted times that either made up some ground on crews they had been chasing this season or increased the gap on teams they have been beating. Thank you to our seniors and we will continue to build the crews size in numbers, speed, and leg strength as we look forward to next season.
UP NEXT:
The women's rowing team is in the running for an at-large bid to the NCAA II Women's Rowing National Championship. The selection show will air on NCAA.com on Tuesday, May 16 at 5:30 p.m.
Fans can follow the Tars all season long at RollinsSports.com. Fans can also stay up-to-date on the latest #TARnation news by following Rollins Sports on
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Instagram.
