Women's Rowing Wins `C' Final at Eastern Sprints
8/12/2003 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
May 20, 2003
CAMDEN, NJ - The 2002-03 Spring Rowing Season came to an end as GW sent four women's crews to race in Camden, NJ, Sunday at the 27th Annual Women's Eastern Sprints Championships. The Sprints brings together the top women's rowing programs in the East to compete in the oldest collegiate championship in women's rowing. Alumni tents, representing the 18 schools that compete, lined the banks of the Cooper River as thousands of spectators came to watch several of the nation's top programs battle in the last regular season championship prior to the NCAAs. GW sent four crews to compete.
In the premier event, GW's varsity eight comprised of Liz Bissinger (Staatsburg, NY/FD Roosevelt), captain Tracy Kusnir (Aliquippa, PA/Hopewell), Molly Hueller (Stillwater, MN/Stillwater Area), Brynn Kowalski (Doylestown, PA/Gwynedd Mercy), Kristen Salman (Chapel Hill, NC/Voorhees), Regina Cambilargiu (Fairbanks, AK/North Pole), Steph Downey (Westport, CT/St. George's), Emily Sustick (Northampton, MA/Northampton) and Meg Schultz (Monroe, CT/Saint Joseph) faced second-ranked Brown, Boston University, Columbia and Rutgers. The top two finishers advanced to the grand final (with four other crews from two other heats), third and fourth place would race in the 'Petite' Final, and last place would race in the 'C' final.
As the race began, a slow start which has plagued the varsity all year again proved again to be costly. By one quarter of the way into the race, the GW women were a full boat length behind the front four crews. Columbia had stormed out to a half length lead over Brown and BU, who were more than a full length ahead of GW. As the crews moved into the second quarter of the race, Brown began to show why it was the top seed in the heat and moved through Columbia and began to move away from the pack. BU also started to push and it slowly became obvious that, first and second place (and spots in the grand final) would go to Brown and BU (GW lost to this same BU crew by only three seconds earlier in the year). As they approached the halfway point, the GW crew slowly began to claw it's way back into Rutgers, and close the gap on Columbia. Over the next quarter, the GW women would move back to a seat down on Columbia, and even get a lead over Rutgers, but all of the work to get them back into the race, drained them of the power they would need for the sprint. As they crossed the finish line, all three crews were within a few seats of each other. Columbia grabbed the third place spot and was only a seat or two over GW and Rutgers who ended in a photo finish. After reviewing the photo, referees awarded Rutgers fourth place and GW fifth. Less than half of a second separated the crews, and GW would race in the 'C' final.
In the 'C' final, the GW women would redeem themselves. As the starter's flag dropped, the GW women blasted off the line at 44 strokes per minute. As they shifted down to their race pace of 35 strokes per minute they led by four seats on Northeastern, six on Navy, and Georgetown and MIT were further back. Through the middle of the race, the GW women would extend their lead to a full boat length over Northeastern, open water on Navy and completely leave Georgetown and MIT in their wake. In the end, the GW women won with a time that was faster than several of the crews in the finals above them. Their final, was the race they had been training for, it just came one race too late.
Final Results - Eastern Sprints Championships
Varsity Eight Final Results
'C' Final
1. GW 7:10.6
2. Northeastern 7:13.3
3. Navy 7:14.0
4. Georgetown 7:30.3
5. MIT 8:06.3
'Petite' Final
1. Cornell 7:00.1
2. Pennsylvania 7:07.2
3. Dartmouth 7:09.9
4. Columbia 7:13.0
5. Wisconsin 7:13.3
6. Rutgers 7:27.4
'Grand' Final
1. Radcliffe (Harvard) 6:43.8
2. Princeton 6:48.2
3. Brown 6:51.2
4. Yale 6:55.6
5. Boston University 7:03.4
6. Syracuse 7:14.1
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Varsity Four Results
'Petite' Finals
1. Cornell
2. Wisconsin
3. Syracuse
4. Dartmouth
5. Northeastern
6. GW
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Novice Eight Results
'Petite' Finals
1. Cornell 7:16.6
2. Northeastern 7:20.5
3. Boston University 7:34.2
4. GW 7:36.9
5. Syracuse 7:37.4
6. Rutgers 7:46.9
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Second Novice Eight Results
'Petite' Finals
1. GW 7:58.5
2. Rutgers 8:08.7
3. Georgetown 8:11.5
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For more information about race times, or directions, contact the GW Rowing office at (202) 994-8603, or via e-mail at either gwcrew@gwu.edu or crewalum@gwu.edu.
For complete results visit the row2k website at: http://row2k.com