May 14, 2007
The Mason women's rowing team finished the season on a high note as they returned to the medal dock for the first time in 10 years at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia this past weekend. The Lightweight 4 took 3rd place out of 22 boats. The Varsity 8 and 2nd Varsity 8 both made it to the semi-finals.
The Patriots Lightweight 4 was the biggest highlight of the weekend. The boat consisted of Jesse Laltoo (4), Lauren Bartok (3), Kelly Hunsecker (2), Elizabeth Callaghan (1), and coxswain Lee Ann Fisher. They took second in their heat, second in their semi-final, and third place in the grand final. The only two boats the Mason boat lost to the whole weekend were Pittsburgh who finished first and Lawrence who finished second. They beat both Duquesne and Connecticut who had beaten the Patriot rowers at one point earlier in the year.
The Varsity 8 boat finished 3rd in their heat which forced them into the reps. In the reps they needed to finish in the top two to qualify for the semi-finals, and they were facing a tough crew from Cal-Irvine and Drexel, who beat them at CAA Championships by six seconds. "The girls put together a great race and finished first beating both Drexel and Cal-Irvine by three seconds," said Dillard. The boat had a collision in the semi-final that took them out of the race. "In the semi-final we wanted to race an aggressive race, unfortunately our coxswain was too aggressive and cut the turn too much and collided with Fordham and knocked us out of the race," said Coach Dillard.
The 2nd Varsity 8 finished 3rd in their heat just .3 seconds off of Alabama who finished 2nd, but 3rd still qualified them for semi-finals. In semi-finals they needed top 3 to advance to grand finals but they came up just .1 seconds short and finished 4th behind Temple. "They competed hard and was in some extremely close races," added Dillard.
The Novice 4 got stuck in a tough heat and finished 3rd in their heat needing top two to advance. They posted the 10th fastest time out of 41 boats. "They performed very well for a crew that did not have a lot of practice time in the four," said Dillard. "We look forward to these girls moving up to varsity next year."
This was the last race in what was considered a very successful season. "I was extremely proud of all our boats. They all stepped up to challenges and were able to beat boats that beat us earlier in the year. All the varsity boats advanced further then last year and were really close to all making finals. We will miss our seniors, but we will be returning most of our varsity squad. The future looks good and we are already excited to start working towards next year and take the program yet another step forward," said Dillard.
