April 19, 2005

Oak Ridge, Tenn.--The George Mason women's rowing team participated in Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA) Regatta this past weekend, rowing two boats, a varsity 8 and 2nd varsity 8, at Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The varsity 8 rowed their boat raced in Heat 1 and finished sixth with a time of 7:56.13, and qualified for the B Finals. The Patriot women placed third in the B Final, improving on their time from the first race, finishing with a time of 7:26.56. The winning Varsity 8 boat was #26 ranked Louisville, who finished with a 6:49.40 in Sunday's race.

The 2nd varsity 8 raced in the JV 8 and placed seventh, finishing the race with a time of 7:46.61. North Carolina came in first with a time of 7:10.40 and Louisville second finishing in 7:12.10.

"Once again, we were going up against some very strong competition, and although we did not place well, we are learning about ourselves, and identifying areas that we need to improve on," said Head Coach Geoff Dillard. "We improved on each race, and that is the important thing," added Dillard.

"We are getting off the line well, and hanging with the field for the first half of the race, but are falling behind on the second half of the race. We need to work on our conditioning and be able to maintain our boat speed over the full 2000m. Once we do that, we will find ourselves in a lot closer races, and look to pull one out."

Up next for women's rowing is the CAA Championship (Kerr Cup) this weekend in Philadelphia, Pa.