This past weekend, the women’s and men’s squads split up for an eventful weekend of racing at two separate venues.
The women’s teams headed down to Sarasota, Florida for the FIRAs Championship regatta at the newly built Benderson Park venue, where they competed in a V8+, V4+ (A & B), N8+, and N4+ (A & B).
Conditions proved very conducive to rowing on Friday, with a calm breeze out of the west. The Varsity and Novice women’s 4+ cruised through their respective heats to advance to finals. The Novice Women’s “B” 4+ competed in finals coming in second behind UF.
On Saturday, the Varsity Women’s 8+ began the day strong with a second place finish beating the University of Florida by 1.1 seconds. Later in the day, the wind started to pick up, creating a powerful cross wind that affected most boats for the remainder of the afternoon. The Novice Women’s 8+ came in third and in the Novice “A” 4+, Emory finished fifth. Finally, finishing up the day of racing, the Varsity “B” 4+ pushed through to a second place finish behind FIT, and the Varsity “A” 4+ weathered tough conditions for a silver place medal behind Nova.
The trip went smoothly and successfully with most boats returning with a medal and fond memories. The girls are excited to compete again next weekend against most of the same teams – this time, with their eyes locked on gold!
Meanwhile, the men’s teams traveled up to Durham, North Carolina to scrimmage Duke University. Conditions on the course at Duke’s Lake Michie were nearly perfect, with a slight tailwind and calm water reminiscent of Stone Mountain Lake. All squads put out strong performances, with Varsity 4+, Varsity 8+, Novice 8+ and Novice 4+ beating the Duke boats by a fair margin. Emory’s Lightweight 8+ was stroke for stroke with the Duke LWT 8+, but was unable to pull away, resulting in a loss of less than 0.2 seconds. The day ended seeing two exhausted crews racing in the Lightweight 4+, with Duke winning by a boat length.
The men’s squads gained crucial racing experience this weekend, and will continue to refine the technical aspects of their rowing over the next week in preparation for SIRAs and the rest of the championship racing season. We would like to thank Duke University Crew for this great opportunity and for their generous hospitality.