PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Barry University women’s rowing team battled the elements over the weekend at the Dad Vail Regatta that took place in Philadelphia.
The Bucs had to deal with rain and changed course lengths in order to get the races in.
“It rained so much, that the current became too strong to practice on,” Barry head coach Dave Sanderson said. “That made them change the race length from 2000 Meters to 1500M and it basically became single file down the river.”
The top 12 teams out of each heat advanced to the semifinals, as the Barry Varsity 8 grabbed an 11th place finish with a time of 4:53.755 to move on to the semifinals.
“Even though we placed 11th, all the times were really close,” Sanderson said, referring to how the Bucs were just two seconds out of a seventh place finish which Nova Southeastern took with a time of 4:51.259. “It was an interesting race with the situation we had, as you don’t race that short of race most times.”
The Varsity 8 then grabbed a fifth place finish in the semifinals with a time of 7:03.842, as the top two in the semifinals moved on to the finals.
“The race was rescheduled twice, as we ended up fifth in the semifinals to move on to the Petite Final,” Sanderson said.
The Varsity 8 came away with a fourth place result in the Petite Final with a time of 7:57.125. Orange Coast won the event with a time of 7:46.130.
“The conditions continued to change over the course of the weekend, which they did again before the Petite Final,” Sanderson said. “The waters became a little rougher, but we did well beating out Humboldt State and Nova Southeastern.”
The Novice Four also competed in the Regatta and placed 44th overall with a time of 6:06.669.
The Dad Vail Regatta marked the end of the 2008-09 season for the women’s rowing team.
“The team overcame a bunch of obstacles throughout the season,” Sanderson said. “Hopefully the team will come back stronger and more motivated after experiencing what they did this year. We are encouraged by the incoming freshmen, as they should help us build on our results.”
The link to the times from the Regatta are located below
http://secure.powerhousetiming.com/powerhouse/webpages/raceResults.jsp?raceId=211