Oct. 24, 2006

The George Mason rowing team competed in the prestigious Head of the Charles in Boston this past weekend and finished a school-best 9th out of 51 boats in the Club 8+ event. The boat finished within 5% of the winning team which means we will have an automatic bid for next year's race.

The boat covered the approximately three-mile course in 18:59.34. Tennessee's rowing team won the Club 8+ for the second straight year in a time of 18:10.339, a second-and-a-half faster than the Lions Rowing Club shell.

"The Charles course is very challenging and the conditions were very windy, which made for a difficult race," said Head Coach Geoff Dillard. "The girls got out to a very fast start and posted the fasted time to the first check point. They were then challenged by an Alumni Princeton boat that was starting to catch them from behind. The girls did a great job of keeping their composure and fighting off the Princeton boat.

Once again the girls exceeded my expectations, stepped up to challenges and came out on top. I was very pleased with how the girls represented George Mason and our team," added Dillard.