George Washington University
Occoquan Sprints
Weather Keeps Men's Rowing Off Occoquan Sprints
4/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
April 5, 2004
LORTON, VA - The GW Men's Rowing team was unable to compete at the Occoquan Sprints Sunday due to inclement weather near Lorton, VA, Sunday. Cold temperatures and gusts of 30-40 mph whipped up waves and strong currents, making the conditions on the water unsafe and kept the Colonials from defending their gold medal from last year.
"We sent our crews out for the preliminary heats in the morning, after sitting on the water for an hour and a half they finally raced," GW coach Matt Boyle said. They were unable to warm up properly because there were so many crews in a small, congested area. The referees were trying to get the races underway but the weather simply wouldn't cooperate. We reached a point where it was foolish to keep a crew out on the water. I had to make the difficult decision to pull our crews from the regatta."
The GW men and women will be racing this Saturday on the Potomac River for the 17th Annual GW Invitational Crew Classic. "We have some of the best crews in the country coming to our river this weekend, it will be a tremendous test for our team," Boyle said. Racing begins at 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning and will conclude with the Men's and Women's Varsity Eights just after 3:00 p.m. Admission is free and it promises to be an exciting day of racing on the Potomac.
Men's Rowing relies primarily on 'walk-on' athletes. Interested freshmen are encouraged to e-mail gwcrew@gwu.edu for information on how to join the team.
