CHERRY HILL, N.J. - Old Dominion women’s rowing finished competition at the Knecht Cup at Camden County’s Cooper River in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Three boats advanced to semi-final races but could not advance to the finals.
"I think that ODU really stepped up this weekend," said ODU head coach Brian Conley. "We had three boats make it to Sunday racing and into finals. I think that we have started to figure out the line-ups as this weekend was big with our competitiveness across a large field of teams. The 1V4+ made it to the D final straight from the heats on Saturday. It was good to see this boat fight even though they didn’t feel it was the cleanest of races for them."
"The Varsity 8+ showed a lot of improvement and resiliency from the semi-final to the final. The boat felt that the final was their best race and were happy they could correct some mistakes from the earlier races. They were able to finish 16th out of 34 varsity 8+’s. The 2V8+ had the best result of the weekend, placing 11th out of 32 teams. They executed consistently and felt they could do better after their heat on Saturday and on Sunday were able to put together two really solid races where they didn’t back down."
ODU opened Saturday, April 11 with its first race at 10:32 a.m. The event was a 2V4+ and UMass (7:59.56) grabbed first place followed by Jacksonville (8:03.14) in second, Delaware (8:08.39) in third, and ODU finished fourth (9:04.20). Next up to compete for the Monarchs was a 1V4+ boat led by coxswain Savannah Hartlove and ODU finished sixth with a time of 9:03.19 whilst Lehigh captured first place with a winning time of 8:36.77.
In the final race on Saturday ODU’s 1V8+ boat, led by coxswain Ellen Gortz, placed second out of six competitors with a time of 6:55.98. ODU finished ahead of Sacred Heart’s time of 6:58.39, Albany’s 6:58.89, and West Virginia (7:03.47) along with Iona (7:20.23) rounded out fifth and sixth place. Radcliffe took home first place and a trip to the next round with the winning time of 6:45.23.
Sunday opened with the semi-final 2V8+ race at 7:30 a.m. ODU placed fourth out of six competing schools and clocked in a time of 7:25.50 while Boston placed first (7:17.88). Temple finished second (7:19.10), UMass grabbed third (7:23.27), and Holy Cross (7:29.07) and Sacred Heart (7:34.29) finished fifth and sixth, respectively. The second semi-final race of ODU’s day took place at 7:51 a.m. and ODU finished sixth out of six places with a time of 7:33.56. Bucknell finished first (7:10.19) followed by Temple in a close finish (7:10.98), MIT placed third (7:17.09), UConn (7:20.69) and Holy Cross (7:27.36) finished fourth and fifth, respectively. In the third race on Sunday ODU’s 1V4+ improved and finished fifth with a time of 8:39.27, but Wisconsin’s time of 8:12.98 beat out Villanova’s time of 8:24.78 in second and Lehigh placed third clocking in at 8:32.75, Colgate placed fifth with a time of 8:44.04.
At 12:45 p.m. another 2V8+ commenced and ODU’s freshman coxswain Monroe LaRochelle led ODU to a fifth place out of six boats with a time of 7:08.03. UMass (6:57.87) finished first, UConn (7:00.69) placed second, Jacksonville (7:02.43) took home third, MIT (7:05.44) was a few seconds behind and finished fourth, and Marist (7:10.27) placed sixth. The final race of the weekend set off at 2:11 p.m. and Washburn was the coxswain as ODU finished fourth out of six teams with a finish time of 7:01.36. Georgetown placed first (6:55.16), Delaware (6:56.49) finished a little over a second behind the Hoyas for second place, Holy Cross (6:58.36) was three seconds ahead of the Silver and Blue to grab third, and Sacred Heart (7:06.98) and Eastern Michigan (7:08.03) finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Caroline Cotton was in the bow seat of the 1V8+ that made it to the semi-final and gave this quote: “The confidence we gained as a boat and the mentality that we are now highly competitive with some very fast teams. The race today was very focused and internal in our boat and I think maintaining that composure and trust in this lineup will help us.”
UP NEXT:
The Monarchs will be in Raleigh, North Carolina for the Lake Wheeler Invitational starting on Friday, April 24-25 before gearing up for the BIG 12 Championships that begins on Friday, May 15.
ODU's Line-up:
Varsity 8+
5 – Austin Douglas
4 – Maddie Enns
3 – Helen Schuette
1 – Caroline Cotton
Cox – Ellie Gortz
2nd Varsity 8+
8 – Sophie Bell
7 – Jenna Protacio
6 – Hannah Roderick
5 – Lauren Holmes
4 – Nikki DiBacco
3 – Naomi Dausman
2 – Callie Crook
1 – Olivia Kruse
Cox – Molly Deegan
Varsity 4+
4 – Laila Linstrom
3 – Liv Joergensen
2 – Afton Stahl
1 – Trinity Scofield
Cox- Savannah Hartlove
2nd Varsity 4+
4 – Emily Rogerson
3- Ava Hadd
2 – Natalie Dietz
1 – Janic Charrupi
Cox – Julia Hairston