May 3, 2007

Crew on way to championships
Eric Dowler
dowlere@marietta.edu

This past weekend the Pioneer Navy men and women headed in opposite directions. The women headed northeast to Lewisberry, Pennsylvania to compete at the Mid-Atlantic Division III Rowing Championships while the men traveled west to Indianapolis, Indiana for the Indianapolis Invitational.

The women participated in the Varsity Eight and Varsity Four events. The young Varsity Eight crossed the line with a time of 7:46.92, giving them sixth place behind winners University of Mary Washington (7:00.2), Washington College (7:02.01), North Park (7:17.41), Bryn Mawr (7:28.62), and Franklin & Marshall (7:45.77). The women’s Varsity Four (8:44.7) held its own in strong competition but came up short of a victory placing second behind North Park (8:30.7), and in front of John Hopkins (8:52.08), Rutgers-Camden (8:56.06), University of Mary Washington (9:02.57), and Washington College (9:34.14).

One the men’s side, Marietta entered the Varsity and Junior Varsity Eight events. The Junior Varsity had a tough morning heat taking sixth with a time of 6:33.3 while Michigan University (6:01) won the race followed by Michigan’s 3V (6:19.5), Minnesota (6:20.2), Notre Dame (6:21.0) and Purdue (6:23.9). The sixth place finish put the Junior Varsity in the Petite Final where they came out on top with a time of 6:34.9 followed by Purdue (6:35.5), and Purdue Lightweights (6:36.0).

The men’s Varsity Eight, coming off a tough weekend of racing at SIRA’s, went to Indy with something to show to the Dad Vail community. In the morning heat, Marietta was set up against rival Purdue who beat them last week. The Pioneer Navy produced a strong race and walked through Purdue in the last 1000 meters to clock a time of 5:59.8, followed by Purdue (6:00.3), Notre Dame (NT), Dayton (NT), and Cincinnati (NT). Winning the heat put Marietta in lane three next to Michigan University in lane four. In the Grand Final, Marietta took the early lead with a strong start but the power of No. 13 Michigan got ahead of the Navy. Down five seats to Purdue and just out of contact with Michigan, Marietta took their move at the 1000 meter mark to walk back through Purdue chasing down Michigan. Unable to get Michigan (5:56.5) by the finish Marietta clocked a time of 6:02.9 with open water over Purdue (6:08.6), Grand Valley (6:10.9), Notre Dame (6:16.1), and Ohio State (6:27.1).

The entire Pioneer Navy will be off this weekend in preparation for their ultimate goal. The women will be competing at the ECAC Championships in Worchester, Massachusetts, while the men try to defend their Dad Vail Championship title on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.