May 19, 2008

Washington, D.C. - The Georgetown women's lightweight crews medaled at the Eastern Sprints on Cooper River in Camden, N.J. this past Sunday, May 18. The Eastern Sprints are sponsored by the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges and the GU openweights also continued to improve upon past finishes.

The lightweights did very well against some of the best crews in the country as the Varsity Eight finished third behind the reigning four-time champion Wisconsin and 2003 winner Princeton. The Second Varsity Eight was fourth in their grand final coming in after Wisconsin, Princeton and 2004 champion Harvard. The Lightweight Novice Eight also had a strong showing with a second-place finish to Wisconsin.

"The Varsity lightweight women's eight rowed aggressively and raced very hard," Lightweight Head Coach Jim O'Connor said. "We are happy to win a medal in the Varsity Lightweight 8 for the third straight year. Princeton and Wisconsin are two very mature crews that row well and race very hard."

The Georgetown openweights improved on their performances from the past couple years at the Eastern Sprints. The Varsity Eight finished 14th, ahead of Boston College, Rutgers, George Washington and MIT, while the Third Varsity Four ended the day in 15th, less than three seconds behind Cornell. Also, the Novice Four picked up a fifth-place finish, the highest finish of a non-Ivy League school in the event.

"One of our goals at the beginning of the season was to have our openweights in place to compete competitively at Eastern Sprints," Head Coach Glenn Putyrae said. "We met our realistic objective, which was to be in races by the time ECWRC's rolled around. We wanted to be in the thick of things."

"We were incredibly proud of the performance of the entire women's rowing program," O'Connor said. "All crews, lightweight and openweights raced with tremendous passion and courage. With such a young roster we have shown that we are developing a very good foundation for future success."