FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason University rowing team will look to build on a strong spring debut when the Patriots head south to Norfolk for a showdown with Old Dominion on Saturday morning.
 
The Patriots and Monarchs will begin competition at 8 a.m. Mason will race its Varsity 8+, Second Varsity 8+ and Varsity 4a/4b boats in the early morning event.
 
The Green & Gold are coming off a productive race last Saturday in Philadelphia. The Patriots' Varsity 8+ topped La Salle by more than 11 seconds to win its opening race of the 2017 spring campaign. The Second Varsity 8+ also performed well on the Schuylkill River.
 
"Our Varsity 8+ put together a strong second half and showed a lot of maturity for an early season race," head coach Ted Nagorsen said. "Old Dominion is fast, carries a lot of speed and is well coached. We're tinkering with our Varsity 8+ lineup this week. We want to develop more consistency and row more aggressively through the body of the race while getting rid of the peaks and valleys. The first half of our race in Philadelphia could've been substantially faster.  We want to get off to a good start, stay aggressive through the middle and continue that second half race progression we had last week."
 
Mason's Varsity 8+ boat featured a pair of freshmen last week, and Nagorsen was pleased with their performance, especially considering the challenges that come with progressing from high school to Div. I collegiate rowing
 
"High schools race 1500m and colleges race 2000m, so I was pleased with how our freshman handled the back half of the race last week," Nagorsen said. "High school races can have 20, 30 or 40 teams, while in college these type of races are you and one other team. It can be cutthroat, because you have one team to beat. If they get out on top of you, you can't race off other crews. You have to work your way back up and I thought they handled their first experience well."
 
Mason's Second Varsity 8+ has been executing well over the past week in practice and will look to improve its performance in the second half of Saturday's race, which is where Drexel pushed past the Patriots last weekend.
 
Saturday's event also will provide a first look at the candidates for Mason's Varsity 4 lineup, with a pair of boats taking to the water for the first time this spring.

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