May 7, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's men's rowing team owns a few high seeds in the 70th Dad Vail Regatta, this Friday and Saturday on the Schuylkill River, and will look to have another strong showing among some of the nation's best crews.

The Dad Vail Regatta brings national competition to the Schuylkill River for what is the oldest and largest "league" championship in collegiate rowing.

The Hawks have not raced since the Bergen Cup, which the Varsity 8 won for the first time since 1978, completing final exams last week.

The SJU team of 41 student-athletes will be competing for Dad Vail titles in the Varsity 8, JV 8, Freshman 8, Freshman Lightweight 8 and Varsity Lightweight 4. But the Hawks will have their hands full with the highly competitive field including Purdue, Jacksonville, Temple, Grand Valley, Colgate, Minnesota, Drexel, Lehigh, FIT, Santa Clara, Delaware, San Diego, Georgia Tech, Army, North Carolina and Marietta, to name a few.

After impressive wins at SIRA and Bergen Cup the JV 8 enjoys the highest pre-race seeding for the Hawks with the overall #1 seed in the event. Benefitting from its recent win in the Bergen Cup, the Hawks Varsity 8 has its best Dad Vail seed of Coach Drew Hill's tenure, as the #3 seed in the 30 crew event. The Freshman 8 goes into Vails with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove after a poor performance at the SIRA Regatta on April 20th. The first-year Hawks received the 6th seed and will be looking to advance to the semi- finals with a solid heat race. The last two events for the Hawks, the Varsity Lightweight 4 and the Freshman Lightweight 8 are unseeded events.

The first race of the regatta for the Hawks is the heat of the Varsity 8 event at 10:30 a.m. on Friday. The regatta concludes with the Grand Final of the Men's Varsity 8 at 4:35 p.m. on Saturday, where the Hawks will look to capture the Richard O'Brien Trophy for only the second time in school history.

For complete information on the Dad Vail Regatta, click here.