Nov. 8, 2006

Fairfax, Va. - Mason rowing wrapped up its final race of the Fall season this past weekend at the Head of the Occoquan. Mason raced two Collegiate 8's, two Collegiate 4's, two Novice 8's, and one Novice 4.

In the Collegiate 8 Mason placed 5th and 7th out of 17 boats. Navy, George Washington, Navy B, and Delaware claimed the top 4 spots respectively. Coach Geoff Dillard had this to say about the race, "I was very pleased to see both our boats place in the top half of the race and close together. I think that says something about the depth on this year's squad. I thought we could have had a better race in our Varsity 8, as we looked out of sync and tired coming across the finish. This will be some motivation going into our winter training."

In the Collegiate 4 Mason placed 8th and 9th out of 20 boats. Coach Dillard has this to say after this race, "Again, I was happy to have both our boats finish in the top half and finish so close together. They were competing against some other team's top 4 girls, and I thought they finished very well. When we shift to the spring and match up 1-24 versus other school's 1-24, I think we will find that we will be highly competitive from top to bottom."

In the novice events Mason placed 8th and 13th out of 16 boats in the Novice 8's, and 6th out of 9 boats in the Novice 4's. "Despite very little practice time on the water due to a lot of class conflicts, we were happy with how the Novices rowed. This was their first and only race of the fall due to the Head of the Schuylkill being canceled. The novices will continue to improve and work hard, and they will be competitive come spring time." said Coach Dillard.