OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Old Dominion rowing competed at the SIRA Championships on Friday and Saturday, April 14-15, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Lady Monarchs had three first place finishes over the two days including two WV8+ races and a first place finish in the WV4+.
The weekend started with time trials on Friday to compete in the finals on Saturday. ODU raced in the WV4+, WV8+ and the Novice/JV8+ races on Friday. The Lady Monarchs had their best finish of the day in the WV8+ coming in first with a time of 6:06.120. They beat out teams from Kansas State, Jacksonville, FIT, Purdue, Rollins, Wichita State and Stetson.
The WV4+ boat finished 7th of 9 with a time of 7:21.438, 29 seconds behind the lead boat from Kansas State. In the Novice/JV8+, ODU raced two boats that finished fourth and sixth of nine participants. The fourth place boat finished in 6:31.360 while the sixth place boat came in at 6:47.770.
On Saturday, ODU competed in a semifinal race and four finals on Melton Lake in Oak Ridge. The Lady Monarchs finished first in the WV8+ semifinal race with a time of 6:54.382. The edged out FIT, Purdue and Stetson for a place in the finals later in the day.
The WV4+ boat finished first in their finals race defeating Rollins and Tennessee Club with a time of 8:04.678, almost 40 seconds faster than their competition.
ODU’s W3V/3N 8+ finished fourth in their final heat, bringing in the rear with a 7:54.903 time.
A third place finish was the result for the WJV8+ who came in behind Kansas State and Jacksonville with a time of 7:24.290.
Rounding out competition for the weekend was the WV8+ boat. Led by Taylor Phy the Lady Monarchs finished second behind Kansas State with a 6:47.166 time, less than three seconds behind the lead boat.
Old Dominion returns to action next weekend, April 22-23, as they head to Lake Ridge, Va., to compete in the George Mason Invitational on the Occoquan Reservoir.