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Rowing Hosts Spring Races at Grande River Park
 
Spartans take on Notre and Indiana in dual events.
 
 
 

 
MSU's Katie Bitz and Tamara Yantovsky
 
 

April 4, 2008

PDF of Complete MSU Rowing Notes

SPARTANS HOST SPRING DUALS AT GRANDE RIVER PARK
The Spartans host their only races of the 2008 season on Saturday, April 5, when Indiana, Notre Dame and Miami (FL) come to the Grande River Park in Lansing, Mich. Races will begin at 10:45 a.m. and run throughout the day; the final race is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. Michigan State battles Notre Dame in the morning heats, before facing Indiana in the afternoon races.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
MSU's crews continue to row with strength and consistency as they charge into the spring season. At last week's event in Princeton, N.J., the varsity four boat took first with a time of 8:29.8, finishing 15 seconds before Brown (8:44.9).

The eighth-ranked varsity eight and second varsity eight boats finished second in their respective heats, fighting through gusty winds and rough waters.

"All the varsity boats raced really well, and had great second thousands," said head coach Matt Weise. "We need to work on the first thousand meters, but that means we saw some things we can work on and fix. There is more speed to be had."

ROWING IN THE RANKINGS
On April 2, Michigan State's varsity eight boat appeared in the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association/UWRowing's NCAA Division I Top 20 rankings as the No. 8 crew in the nation. Receiving 299 points, the Spartans are ranked for the first time this year.

Other Big Ten programs to appear in the poll are No. 9 Ohio State, No. 10 Michigan and No. 12 Minnesota. The University of California jumped nine spots to become the country's top boat.

SCOUTING THE HOOSIERS
Indiana's varsity eight picked up a pair of wins over Dayton and Eastern Michigan this past weekend on its home course at Lake Lemon in Bloomington, Ind. Unfortunately, weather conditions forced the remainder of the regatta to be cancelled.

 

 

SCOUTING THE HURRICANES
Last weekend in Orlando, Miami's varsity four team of Molly Thornton, Karalyn Van Aken, bow Courtney Guy, stroke Julianne Parker and coxswain Ana Cristina Mantilla beat UCF, 732.59-to-7:38.28 while the Knights downed the Hurricanes in the Varsity Eight race, 6:34.79-to-6:44.64.

SCOUTING THE FIGHTING IRISH
Notre Dame, after finishing 12th at the 2007 NCAA Championships, is currently ranked 14th in this week's US Rowing/CRCA Coaches Poll. This past weekend, the Irish won two of three races against No. 6 Stanford and No. 18 UCLA, before dropping all three races to No. 1 Cal at the Pac-10 Challenge.

AWARDS AND HONORS
The Michigan State varsity four was named the Big Ten Conference's Co-Boat of the Week after opening the season with a win over Princeton and Brown on Saturday, March 29.

MSU's crew began the year racing in 2,000-meter heats through strong headwinds and whitecaps on Carnegie Lake in Princeton, N.J. The varsity four took first place by clocking a time of 8:29.8 against the Tigers and Bears. The crew of Nancy Diehl, Allison Duffy, Sarah Kreft, Clare Vandelinder and Ashley Wenneman finished more than 15 seconds ahead of Brown (8:44.9), while Princeton's boat finished at 9:08.4.

The Spartans share the April 1 honor with Indiana's varsity eight crew. Michigan State's last conference award went to the varsity eight boat on April 23, 2007.