May. 2, 2005

The George Mason rowing team raced three boats at the Bucknell Invitational on Saturday at Shamokin Dam, Pa. The varsity 8 and the second varsity 8 both finished second in their races and varsity 4 finished fourth.

The varsity 8 got off to a fast start and was leading Bucknell by four seats after the first 500m, but was unable to hold the lead, crossing the finish-line in a time of 7:04, eight second behind winner Bucknell. The rowers stayed out in front of Loyola and held them off from start to finish, defeating them by two seconds.

"We had another good weekend of racing against Bucknell and Loyola," said Head Coach Geoff Dillard. "The varsity 8 put out a good performance for the second straight weekend. It was nice to beat Loyola, who had beaten our varsity 8 at Dad Vails last year by four seconds."

The 2nd varsity 8 put together a good race, finishing second to Bucknell and defeating Loyola. Mason finished with a time of 7:36, behind Bucknell's time of 7:24 and ahead of Loyola with a time of 7:43.

"The 2nd varsity 8 put together a good race this weekend," said Dillard. "They had been racing hard in practice and I wanted to see that in race conditions, and they did exactly that."

For the first time this spring, Mason entered a varsity 4 boat and came in fourth, four seconds behind Susquehanna. Bucknell won the race with a time of 8:15.

"The girls are starting to learn what it takes to put them in a competitive situation," added Dillard. "We will again go back and work on some of our weaknesses over the next two weeks and prepare for the Dad Vail. I believe that our best rowing is yet to come, and look forward to racing in two weeks."