May 11, 2009

George Mason's rowing team finished the season at the 71st annual Dad Vail Regatta on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia this past weekend. Because of inclement weather, fast, rising water and debris on the race course Friday's races, originally 2000 meter, 6-boat qualifying heats, were changed to a 1500 meter head race format time trial.

The Patriots Varsity 8 advanced to the semi-finals after finishing in the top 18 in a time of 4:49.159 in Friday's heats. On Saturday, the boat finished 6th in their heat and did not advance.

"I think we peaked too early in our season and we were not going our fastest at the end of the season," Dillard commented. "We will tweak things for next year so that we can have a better showing at the Dad Vail."

Dillard added. "This was a season of highs and lows. We saw some great speed from all of our boats during parts of our season. We will learn from this season and be excited to regain this speed and maintain it throughout the spring next year."

"We will miss our graduating seniors and wish them the best of luck with their future. We look forward to our underclassman returning along with the addition of our recruits coming in next year."

Results http://secure.powerhousetiming.com/powerhouse/webpages/raceResults.jsp?raceId=211:

Friday
Varsity 4:
1st place UC Irvine 5:00.85
2nd Brock 5:01.61
3rd Stetson 5:03.97
4th Drake 5:04.93
33rd Mason 5:23.933  (out of 37)
Varsity 8: (top 18 to semis):
1st place Grand Valley 4:30.499
2nd place Buffalo 4:34.435
3rd place Drexel 4:36.797
4th place San Diego 4:37.647
17th Mason 4:49.159 (out of 30)
Frosh/Novice 8: (top 18 to semis):
1st UConn 5:04.227
23rd Mason 5:21.369 (out of 32)
Second Varsity 8: (top 6 to final):
1st UMass 5:10.435
2nd Buffalo 5:12.815
11th Mason 5:20.629
Saturday:
Varsity 8 Semi-final (top 2 progress)
1 BUFFALO  06:29.937
2 PURDUE  06:35.063
3 TEMPLE 06:40.676
4 FORDHAM 06:42.796
5 DELAWARE 06:44.684
6 GEORGE MASON 06:58.385