George Washington University
IRA Regatta (men)
Men's Rowing Takes Pair of Silvers at IRA Regatta
6/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
June 7, 2004
CAMDEN, NJ - The GW men's rowing team completed a historic day on Saturday at the Cooper River in Camden, NJ. Racing for a National Championship at the prestigious IRA Regatta, both Colonials' entries won silver medals against a talented field.
Competing in the Varsity 4 with coxswain and the Freshmen 4 event, each crew began the weekend against a talented field of 24 other teams. The Freshmen 4, consisiting of Mike Hill, Henry Roosevelt, Chris Straub, Mike Mancusi-Ungaro and Amy Garrison were very strong in the preliminary heats that took place on Thursday and Friday.
However, after qualifying for Saturday's Grand Final, the crew was assigned lane 5, a serious setback considering the wind and rain that had plagued the race course. Undaunted, the Colonials led the pack early in the race and soon found themselves in a tight battle with their counterparts from Harvard University. The two crews pushed away from the rest of the field and Harvard was able to edge the Colonials in the end.
"This crew raced as well as they possibly could have and what they accomplished today is a result of a lot of hard work on their part and great coaching from Jim O'Connor," GW Men's coach Matt Boyle remarked, "I'm very proud of them."
In the Varsity event, the defending National Champion University of Washington Huskies had demonstrated on Thursday and Friday that they were the crew to beat. The Colonials had seen first-hand on Friday in their Semifinal, where they chased the Huskies down the 2,000-meter course only to finish second by about two seats.
That finish was enough to qualify GW for the Grand Final where there would be another showdown with Washington. The GW oarsmen decided that they needed to adjust their race plan so that they could get an early lead on Washington, rather than having to chase them as in the Semifinal. The crew of Victor Marwin, Steve Carlson, Joe Richards, Alex Cashman and Evan Johnson blasted out of the start at 46 strokes per minute and soon had a one-length advantage on the field. They held that margin through the first 1,000 meters but at that point Washington was able to pull even and for the remainder of the race, the two crews were locked in a dogfight.
The Huskies rowed a tremendous race and came across the line about two seconds ahead of GW. "That was the best effort I've seen from a GW Varsity crew since I've been here," Boyle said. "I'm so happy for the four seniors in that boat, they deserve to end their GW careers with a medal from the IRA, those guys have done so much for this program. To see them leave in this manner is very rewarding for me. It has been years since this program has been able to compete with crews of this quality, it shows me that we are headed in the right direction."
Varsity 4 w/ coxswain
Grand Final
1 Washington 6:45.21
2 GW 6:47.39
3 Michigan 6:52.01
4 Saint Joseph's 6:58.83
5 Hobart 7:00.43
6 Harvard 7:01.44
Freshmen 4
Grand Final
1 Harvard 6:58.81
2 GW 7:01.24
3 Brown 7:03.36
4 Penn 7:04.47
5 USC 7:10.51
6 Georgetown 7:23.09
