GAINESVILLE, Ga. (March 23, 2024) – The John Ferris Lanier Sprints proved to be very successful for the Rollins women's rowing team. With three boats entered every athlete came home with a medal around their neck.
Rollins had two boats entered in the Varsity 4 event and the goal was for both to earn their way into the Grand Finals and race each other head-to-head. This came to fruition with the DII Four (
Brianne Engel,
Sophie Bolan,
Justine Hickey,
Francesca Morgan-Tomascik,
Lillian Groves) winning their heat by 25 seconds and the Varsity 4 B boat (
Dinah Rofman,
Emily Quezada,
Morgan Lane,
Erin Hughes,
Sarah Monroy) winning theirs by 25 seconds. The Clemson Club boat from the first heat posted the fastest time of all the heats, winning theirs by 30 seconds. The teams rounding out the Grand Finals would be High Point, Clemson B and Georgia. The Grand Finals turned out just like the heats had predicted with Clemson A winning, Rollins DII finishing second and then Rollins B coming in a close third. "This is awesome when you can have multiple boats in a single race both make the Grand Finals and then medal," said Head Coach
Shawn Pistor.
The Rollins Varsity 8 (
Maria Littman,
Abby Klesa,
Kinsley Sparks,
Grace Oelrich,
Nina Nikolic,
Khloe Smith,
Maria Gutierrez,
Isabella Espino,
Olivia Prelog) was coming off a really good race last weekend and were looking to continue their growth as the season progresses. In their heat, Rollins came out of the gate quick, kept their lead the entire way down the course and placed first, eight seconds ahead of Florida and 41 seconds ahead of Georgia. They posted the fastest time of the morning but knew that Clemson Club from the other heat had an easy row and had not shown their true speed. In the Grand Finals, Rollins earned a silver medal, seven seconds behind Clemson and four seconds ahead of the Gators. The eight was not satisfied with their performance and are already working on the parts of the race that they can improve on next weekend. In their postrace meeting this comment was heard and is why we know there is more speed ahead for this crew. "We win, lose, and improve as a team and next week we will come back even better."
UP NEXT:
The Tars have a quick week and are back on the water in Sarasota both Friday and Saturday for the FIRA Championships. Racing is from 4-6 PM on Friday and then 8 AM-4 PM on Saturday. These same boats will race along with quite a few others to continue to gain race experience, to continue to train, and to see if the women can come close to earning the Team Points trophy.
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
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