FAIRFAX, Va. - Old Dominion women’s rowing competed in nine events at the Head of the Occoquan on Saturday afternoon. The Monarchs’ 2V8+ finished in first place and outpaced the runner-up Georgetown by eight seconds en route to ODU taking home five medals in their first race of the season.
“We had a really good day today with the team at their first race of the fall,” said ODU head coach Brian Conley. “The first race is always tough for a team and especially since all the other teams we raced today had already raced this fall. I think the team did a great job stepping up and executing the things we’ve worked on in practice.”
ODU started off the day with the Varsity 8+ finishing 4th out of 17 boats. Setting off at the same time, the ODU 2V8+ finished with a time of 18:06:800 to finish 1st of out 11 competitors and take home a gold medal.
“The brightest spot of the day came with the 2V8+ taking gold in their event early in the day,” said Conley. “They really executed with a lot of aggression and Ellie Gortz did an awesome job taking the inside turn from several crews at the last turn before the finish line.”
ODU’s Novice 4A and 4B were next on the event list to compete and they finished in 7th and 9th place out of 11 boats. After racing resumed at 2 p.m., ODU’s Novice 8+ finished in sixth out of tenth place. The next race at the HOTO was the V4+ and ODU had two boats competing. V4A came in fifth place and V4B placed 10th out of the 22 total boats in the race. The Monarchs rounded out the day with a 2V4+ matchup. ODU’s 2V4+ A boat placed third and boat B came in 13th out of 14.
“When the team can walk away with 5 medals on the day, that’s a great day of racing!” added Conley.
UP NEXT:
Old Dominion is back in action on Sunday, Nov. 9 when the Monarchs travel to Earlysville, Va. to compete in the Rivanna Romp, hosted by the University of Virginia.