SARASOTA, Fla. (March 31, 2024) – The Rollins women's rowing team headed to Sarasota this weekend for the FIRA Championships. Teams in attendance were DII rivals Embry Riddle, Barry, Nova Southeastern, and Tampa, as well as Florida, Florida State, Florida Tech, UCF Club and USF. Though Rollins was not able to post any first-place finishes the team had a productive regatta finishing in the top three in five out of the seven races they entered: WDII4 – third, WV8 – second, WJV8 – second, W Pair – second and third, WJV4 – second and third, WN4 – fifth, WV4 – fifth.
Racing began at 8:20 Saturday morning and concluded at 3:50 that afternoon. All the rowers raced twice with most rowing three races and a couple lining up for four. "The experience and training our athletes received this weekend was invaluable," said Head Coach
Shawn Pistor. "Though we would have loved to grab a couple gold medals, the team is still on track to keep their names in the polls for the NCAAs. We are not letting up."
The WV8 (
Maria Littman,
Abby Klesa,
Kinsley Sparks,
Grace Oelrich,
Nina Nikolic,
Khloe Smith,
Maria Gutierrez,
Isabella Espino,
Olivia Prelog) and JV8 (
Dinah Rofman,
Sophie Bolan,
Justine Hickey,
Francesca Morgan-Tomascik,
Lillian Groves,
Emily Quezada,
Morgan Lane,
Erin Hughes,
Sarah Monroy) were both able to get their bows across the line second. Neither was easy and they were not quite able to close the gap on Embry-Riddle. The WDII 4 had one of the closest races of the day. They were inched out of second by just 1.5 seconds behind Barry. Barry had made some line-up changes from the last time the Tars had faced this crew and it came down to the last five strokes.
Rollins had two entries in the Women's Pair and in the Women's JV4. In both races they were able to put both boats on the medal stand in second and third.
UP NEXT:
Rollins has a few weeks before heading to Oak Ridge, Tennessee for the Southern Championships (SIRA). They will use this time to push their training as well as refine their technique. They will also get a better understanding of their national ranks as there are some cross-regional races that will be taking place between now and SIRA. The team would like to thank everyone who was able to attend FIRA and those who were able to watch the live stream. Keep the positive thoughts coming.
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