Oct. 24, 2008
Norfolk, Va. - After a solid debut last weekend in Boston, the Old Dominion University women's rowing team will participate in its first local regatta this Sunday when the Lady Monarchs compete in the annual Head of the Lafayette at the Robertson Rowing Center at Lakewood Park in Norfolk.
The regatta begins at 9 a.m. with the final race scheduled to launch at Noon. ODU will have two boats in the 9:50 a.m. Women's 4+ and one boat in the 11 a.m. Women's 8. One of the boats in the Women's 4+ is comprised of Jenna Marconko (Coxswain), Liz Hess (Stroke), Callie Roadcap (2), Marie Gately (3) and Nicole Meyer (Bow), a group of Lady Monarch freshmen who have shown early promise since the start of fall practice. ODU's F8 entry features a boat mixed with experienced freshmen and walk-ons.
With the exception of three rowers who helped guide ODU to a 30th place finish at the Head of the Charles, Sunday will be the first race for many of the Lady Monarchs. Head coach Heather Weisel understands that with this being the team's second race as a varsity program, it's important to be patient as the program develops.
"Our team expectations are to row to our current potential in all of the events we've entered," says Weisel. "I won't be surprised if we find ourselves a bit over stroked because we've focused so hard this fall on developing proper technique. It's been very important to us to teach and reinforce the need to row well from the start and not to force things to happen too quickly. We're establishing our identity for the future now, but we're determined not to force it. This is our home course so that always helps a bit. We're just going to take it one stroke at a time."