Nov. 5, 2007

The George Mason rowers wrapped up their fall season at the Head of the Occoquan, finishing with a boat in the Top 5 in every event the Patriots entered. Mason raced six varsity boats and three novice boats in the raceS on the Occoquan on Saturday.

"Our goal was to go out and race our race," said Head Coach Geoff Dillard. "We did not want to focus on who we were racing, but just focus on our own boats. I think we were able to accomplish that. I was also pleased that the girls really came together as a team and helped each other out. I think this carried over to our rowing and showed that we have a lot of depth on our team. We will need that to be able to have a successful spring."

The US Naval Academy had three boats entered in the varsity 8 and finished first, second and fourth. Mason finished third and had two boats finish higher then Delaware, West Virginia, and Duquesne's first varsity 8 with a 3rd, 6th and 14th place finish out of 21 boats. The boat also finished a lot closer to Navy then last year. George Mason finished in 18:36.6000 just six seconds behind Navy's second-place boat. The Midshipman's won the race finishing in a time of 17:49.6633.

The varsity 4 saw similar results, finishing 3rd, 4th, and 11th out of 19 boats. "Once again I think our depth was strong in this race," added Dillard. "We have a lot of girls on this team that know how to move a boat."

This was the first race for the Green and Gold Novice boats, entering two 8's and one 4. The Novice 4 boat won their event beating out nine other boats with a time of 22:17.5467. Delaware finished in second in a time of 22:31.4767. In the novice 8 event the Patriots took home 5th and 15th. The 5th place in the novice 8 is the highest finish Mason's had in this event in the past three years. "The novices are right where they need to be and hopefully they can take that 5th place finish and use it as motivation to train hard over the winter to get ready for the spring," said Dillard.

Varsity 8 - 3rd, 6th, 14th out of 21
Varsity 4 - 3rd. 4th. 11th out of 19
Novice 8 - 5th, 15th out of 21
Novice 4 - 1st out of 10