May 14, 2008

On Friday, May 9th and Saturday, May 10th The George Mason University women's rowing team competed in the final race of the season at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia. Mason Rowing fielded boats in the Novice 8, the Second Varsity 8 and the Varsity 8 races. The Novice 8, seeded 11th, finished the regatta with the 7th fastest time and the Second Varsity, seeded 10th, exceeded all expectations with a fourth place finish.

The Varsity 8 started the racing off on Friday. Needing a top two finish to progress directly to the semi-final the V8 fell short of second place Dayton by four seconds. Their third place finish qualified the Varsity 8 for a second chance race called the repechage. The first place finisher in each rep also qualified for the semi-final races, but Mason's 8 was unable to seal the deal in their second race of the day and finished third to California-Irvine and Lehigh.

Mason's Novice 8 easily advanced out of their heat; finishing just three seconds off of the #1 seeded Grand Valley, and with a time of 6:45.5, posted the third fastest time of all 31 novice boats in the heats. Mason advanced to the fastest novice 8 semi-final, racing the only two boats with faster heat times, Grand Valley and Bucknell University. Only the top two finishers in the semi moved on to the Grand Final. Mason placed third in the semi-final, but finished the regatta with the 7th fastest time overall. Head Coach Geoff Dillard comments, "This was one of the best Novice 8's we have had at Mason and we look forward to them moving up to varsity next year."

The highlight of Mason's weekend was the 2nd Varsity 8. The 2V started Friday off finishing 2nd in their heat with a time of 6:41, 8 seconds behind the #1 seed UMass; they only needed top three to advance to semi- finals. In the semi-final they needed top two to advance to the grand final. The 2V took control of second place right off of the start and then opened the gap on the eight from the University of Connecticut in the last 500m of the race. The 2V finished 2nd with a time of 6:34, five seconds behind UMass, qualifying them for Mason's first Grand Final appearance in eight years.

In the Grand Final, Mason's 2V got off to a slow start, falling to last place on the field over the first 800 meters. Showing their mettle, the girls picked it up and battled back in the second 1000m bringing it even with The University of Tulsa and St. Joseph's University. With a finishing kick in the final 400 meters, Mason's 2V sprinted through St. Joseph's to finish in 4th place, seven seconds out of third. Purdue won the event followed by UMass then Buffalo. "I was extremely happy with this boat and how they improved all spring. They have a never quit attitude and just have a lot of fun rowing." Coach Dillard said.

Coach Dillard closes out the season with the following comments, "It has been another great year for Mason rowing. It has been another season of "Firsts" including victories in the Varsity 8 and Novice 8 at Occoquan Sprints and CAA Championships, winning our second straight Women's CAA Championship and first ever overall CAA Championship with the Men's team. Our 2nd Varsity 8 has had exciting victories over Georgetown and made it to the grand final at the Dad Vail for the first time in 8 years. Our Novice 8 posted a 32-12 record. There is no doubt that our program is moving in the right direction.

"While we will miss our three seniors, we look forward to having our underclass varsity rowers back, our novice rowers moving up to varsity, and a 12 woman-strong recruiting class coming in next year."