The UConn Women’s Rowing team competed Saturday in Philadelphia at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta, which is known as the largest one day regatta in the world.  The day started for the Huskies in the Club Eight event, where UConn boated a composite crew of varsity rowers and experienced freshman.  They finished 20th out of 31 crews with a time of 15:53.51.  Villanova and the University of Rhode Island were the top two finishers in this event.  UConn head coach Jen Sanford-Wendry was pleased with the finish. “The was a boat that didn’t have a lot of time to practice together, and I was impressed with the improvements they made over the week.  Many of the crews in this event, including Villanova and URI, did not have a boat competing in the Championship Eight event, which means that this was their top eight.  Knowing that, I don’t feel bad about finishing twentieth, and I’m pleased that they had a strong row.” 

The UConn Novice Eights finished 15th and 33rd out of 42 teams.  Princeton won the event.  This was the first race for most of the novice rowers, and it was a good practice for next weekend's Yale Invitational where UConn will have three novice eights competing with very competitive novice crews. 

The final race of the day for UConn was the Championship Eight event.  UConn finished 13th and 14th out of 18 crews with a time of 14:38.57 and 14:58.90.  The winner was Navy with a time of 13:49.5.  Coach Sanford-Wendry attempted to make two boats of equal speed for this event instead of making the fastest eight.  “ I decided to do two mixed eights this week because I thought we would get a lot more out of the practices, and we did.  Of course in looking at results you’d like to see yourself in the top half as opposed to the bottom half, but getting thirteenth and fourteenth at least shows that my attempt to make two equal boats worked.  I can look at those results, and assume that had I boated a first boat and second boat instead of mixed eights we would’ve dropped at least thirty to forty seconds off our time, and that would have put us in the top five.  That makes me feel very optimistic about the Spring.”  

The UConn Novices will finish the fall racing next weekend at the Yale Invitational in Derby, CT.  UConn opens this spring on March 6^th against Barry University in Miami, FL.