Men's Rowing Detours to Murphy Cup
3/28/2005 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
March 28, 2005
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- The GW Men's Rowing team took an unexpected trip to Philadelphia last weekend. Originally scheduled to race Hobart at Ithaca, NY, ice and low water conditions there meant there was a good chance that the race would be cancelled. To guarantee the opportunity to race, GW coach Matt Boyle switched plans late last week and took his crew to the Murphy Cup on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.
The racing in Philadelphia was very fast and both the Freshmen Men's Eight and Varsity Men's Eight moved through the early morning preliminary heats into the Grand Final. The Freshmen men had a strong final and originally finished in second place behind Saint Joseph's but were bumped up to the first place position when race officials disqualified the Hawks for leaving their lane.
"It was a great first race for our Frosh guys," Boyle said, "but St. Joe's was a little faster with or without the steering issue. We'll have to make improvements to catch them."
In the Varsity Men's race, the Colonials had a strong opening to their season by finishing third behind winner St. Joe's and second place Temple. The race demonstrated many things the Colonials will need to work on if they want to compete for medals in the Championship regattas.
Boyle remarked, "It may be early in the season but we have a very young Varsity crew this year and if we are going to compete with crews of this caliber we have a long road ahead of us. Leaving this race with a first and third place is a decent start to our spring [season]."
Varsity Men's 8 Results
1 3 Saint Joseph's 5:46.00
2 5 Temple B 5:49.57 3.57
3 2 George Washington 5:52.69 6.69
4 1 Army 5:55.91 9.91
5 4 Temple 6:00.30 14.30
6 6 Dowling 6:06.05 20.05
Freshmen Men's 8 Results
1 4 George Washington 5:58.86
2 5 Lehigh A 6:11.27 12.41
3 2 Saint Joseph's B 6:14.31 15.45
4 1 Lehigh B 6:45.06 46.20
5 6 La Salle 6:50.70 51.84
EXC 3 Saint Joseph's A
Next up for the GW men is the Occoquan Sprints on Sunday, April 3 on the Occoquan Reservoir in Woodbridge, VA. 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.