April 12, 2005

WASHINGTON, DC--The George Mason women's rowing team participated in their first event of the spring season this past weekend, rowing two boats, a varsity 8 and 2nd varsity 8, at the18th Annual George Washington Invitational Crew Classic. A very tough field and boat damage hampered the Patriots.

The varsity 8 rowed the race even though they encountered boat trouble before the race losing their skeg, the steering mechanism at the stern of the shell. The boat raced in Heat 1 and finished third with a time of 7:15.19, but didn't qualify for the finals. Even though they did not qualify for grand finals, they raced in the 2nd varsity 8 petite final, and beat the first place boat, West Virginia, by 16 seconds unofficially.

The 2nd varsity 8 raced really hard, and was able to keep contact with Villanova's 2nd varsity 8 the whole time, finishing the race with a time of 7:31.57. They were fighting all the way to the end. They finished about the same distance off of Villanova in the heat and then again in the petite final. The boat ran in the 2nd Varsity 8 (Petite) final and finished third with a time of 7:36.00.

"Overall I was happy with how the girls performed this weekend," said Head Coach Geoff Dillard. "It was our first race of the season and we were going up against a very tough field."

"We improved on each race, and that is the important thing," added Dillard. "We will make some adjustments this week in practice and hope to pick up some speed for SIRA, where we will face another strong field including #17 ranked Tennessee and #26 ranked Louisville."

George Washington men's and women's rowing teams combined to score 51 points to place second out of 12 teams in Virginia scored 67 points to capture the Gilbert H. Hood, Jr. Point Trophy and the U.S. Naval Academy was third with 46 points, one point ahead of Georgetown (45 points).

2005 GW  INVITATIONAL CREW CLASSIC
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
                PL.    TEAM            PTS.
                 1    Virginia            67
                 2    George Washington    51
                 3    U.S. Naval Academy    46
                 4    Georgetown        45
                 5    Villanova        25
                 6    Marietta        21
                 7    Temple            18
                 8    Saint Joseph¹s        14
                 9    West Virginia        10
                10 (tie)    Delaware         6
                10 (tie)    Princeton         6
                12    George Mason         2