SARASOTA, Fla. - Old Dominion women’s rowing finished competition at the Sarasota 2K held in Nathan Benderson Park this weekend. ODU struggled on day one of competition but found its form on day two.
“This was our first travel weekend of the spring,” said ODU head coach Brian Conley. “We started things off not how we wanted at all, but the team showed they wanted to compete at a high level and improved each day of racing. We have more to work on to get to the level we want but walking away with wins in the eights over two BIG 12 competitors is a big step for us in the right direction and gets us closer to believing we belong on a medal stand at conference.”
The Monarchs competed in eight races over the two days with four races each day. ODU opened the Sarasota 2K with a 2V4 race and a sixth-place finish with a finish time of 9:12.29. The second race of the afternoon saw ODU compete in a V4 race and finished sixth again but had an improved time of 8:19.64. The Silver and Blue finished fifth in a 2V8+ race next, edging out Kansas State who finished sixth. The Monarchs were clocked with a time of 7:11.08. The last race of the day saw ODU finish sixth in a 1V8+ race with a finish time of 7:04.20.
Day two saw ODU open the first race at 8 a.m. for a three boat 2V4 race, the Monarchs finished in third with a time of 9:00.96. The second event was a V4 contest and ODU finished sixth out of seventh place clocking in at 9:00.93. Old Dominion finished strong the rest of the day with a third-place finish in a 2V8+ race (7:33.94) and a fourth-place finish in 1V8+ race (7:23.50).
Senior Maddie Enns was in the 1V8+ races in the three seat and said after the weekend: “In the 1V8+ we had a solid weekend of racing. We proved we are a strong, responsive, and confident crew and set a solid baseline going into our spring season. The best part of the weekend was taking down two BIG 12 teams West Virginia and Kansas State in the final. We are excited to continue making ground against our conference rivals.”
Junior Jenna Protacio was in the 2V8+ races in the five seat and talked about how this weekend went for her: “The boat competed well and we got to see where we are compared to the other BIG 12 teams. We were very responsive to our coxswain and kept the morale high. The best part was the communication throughout the boat, we did what we wanted to do. That growth and fight is really encouraging moving forward into the conference season.”
UP NEXT:
The Monarchs host Temple on Saturday, April 4 on the Lafayette River before gearing up for the Knecht Cup in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on April 11-12.