PITTSBURGH, Penn. – The Old Dominion Women's Rowing team competed in the Head of Ohio Regatta on Saturday.
ODU raced two boats in the women's colligate novice 4+. A boat led by Sheila Daniels as the coxswain and Sophie Sherman, Cierra Velzis, and Nicole Knight and Helen Schuette placed third out of eight with a time of 21:28.83. The second team featuring Isis Morgan as the coxswain and her crew as follows Catherine Wilson, Kaila Smith, Austin Douglas and Grace Sandhofer-Adams placed eighth with a time of 25:14.59.
The next race was the women's open 2+ which featured two Monarch boats. Lucy Brennan and Sydnee Blackburn took first out of five team with a time of 17:51.39 and the second boat of Sophia Bespalova and Maddie Enns took second place with a time of 18:38.62
Old Dominion raced two boats in the novice women's 4+, the boat featuring Isabella Peycelon as the coxswain and her crew of Alexis Durand, McKenzie Scherra, Stella Flynn and Afton Stahl placed 14 out of 19 with a time of 19:15.41 The second team for the Monarchs featured Libby Guindon as the coxswain and her crew was Gillian Battersby, Lillian Baumann, Haven Habhab, Bekah Kimman placed 15 out of 19 with a time of 19:26.51.
One team raced for ODU in the Collegiate Novice 8+ and took second place out of six teams. The team featured Savannah Hartlove as the coxswain and her crew was Jo Copeland, Nikki DiBacco, Olivia Kruse, Sydney Metzger, Kendall Freeman, Helen Schuette, Nicole Knight and Callie Crook finished in a time of 17:30.07.
The last race the Monarchs competed in was the women's 8+ and Old Dominion had two boats racing. A boat led by Libby Guindon as the coxswain and her crew of Maddie Enns, Lucy Brennan, Sophia Bespalova, Jo Copeland, Sydnee Blackburn, Sydney Metzger, Nikki DiBacco and Haven Habhab finished in second place out of 12 teams with a time of 16:07.42. The second team for ODU placed sixth out of 12 with Ellie Gortz as the coxswain and her of Lily Baumann, Gillian Battersby, McKenzie Scherra, Bekah Kimman, Emma Spinelli, Olivia Kruse, Jinjoo Noh and Afton Stahl finished with a time of 17:54.47.
"ODU had a really solid day of racing overall with majority of our boats bringing home some hardware. Five out of nine crews got a medal with one gold, three silvers and a bronze," said head coach Brian Conley.
"The day started off with some mild conditions that built into a very strong headwind and choppy waters. I'm happy with the first race results for the team. We still have some process pieces to work on, but I think the team is buying into what we trying to do, and the work is starting to produce results."
"The novice/freshmen group really stood out today as they started the medal haul and were able to do that in their first collegiate race and the very first fall race for ODU this year. Our gold medalists in the pair were incredibly relaxed and super aggressive right off the start. Sydnee Blackburn and Lucy Brennan did incredibly well with putting aside their individuality and just focused on truly matching each other and trusting each other. Definitely great to see the things being taught are being put into practice and racing. There are a number of people to comment in their own racing, but I'm most proud of the whole team in how we conducted ourselves the whole day. Working together and celebrating everyone's successes," said Conley.
Old Dominion is back in action next Sunday, Oct. 15 when they compete in the Navy Day Regatta in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
ODU Rowing Wraps Up At Head Of The Ohio Regatta
