Regatta Notes | Real Time Results

CAMDEN, N.J. – After the Sunday morning heats, the No. 17 Boston University women’s rowing team laid claim to berths in three of the afternoon Grand Final events, including the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four “A” races, at the EAWRC “Eastern” Sprints on the Cooper River. Meanwhile, the Terrier entries in the novice eight and varsity four “B” races will compete in the Petite Finals.

“We needed to get the first varsity, second varsity and varsity four “A” boats into the Grand Finals to still be considered for NCAA selection, and we did exactly that,” said BU Head Coach Holly Hatton. “The 2V and V4 did it handily, while the varsity had a more challenging race, but really worked through it.”

First up for BU were the first novice eights, in which the 13th-seeded Terriers rowed in the first heat and placed fourth with a time of 7:51.2, behind top-seeded Princeton (7:15.0), sixth-seeded Cornell (7:30.4) and seventh-seeded Syracuse (7:46.7). Twelfth-seeded Navy was last (7:54.3).

With the top two teams from each of the three heats advancing to the Grand Final, the third- and fourth-place crews heading to the Petite Final and the remainder of the field going to the 3rd Level Final, BU will face Northeastern, Dartmouth, Brown and Radcliffe in the 3:40 p.m. Petite Final.

Next up on the day was the second varsity eight race, in which eighth-seeded BU put up a strong performance to place second in the second heat and gain one of the six Grand Final spots. The Terriers finished in 7:20.2, behind second-seeded Yale (7:15.9), but ahead of fifth-seeded Columbia (7:25.1), 14th-seeded Dartmouth (7:42.6) and 11th-seeded Rutgers (7:43.4). Joining Yale and BU in the Grand Final at 4:25 p.m. will be Brown, Navy, Princeton and Radcliffe.

The fifth-seeded Terrier varsity eight boat followed up the second varsity’s showing with a second-place finish of its own. In heat two, after getting behind second-seeded Brown and eighth-seeded Columbia by a length in the first half, the BU contingency pulled back to within half a length of the Lions at the 1,000-meter mark. In the third 500, the Terriers gained about a length on Columbia before the Lions made a push in the sprint and finished 1.4 seconds behind BU. Brown took the heat in 7:04.5, with BU second in 7:13.9, Columbia third in 7:14.3, 11th-seeded Syracuse fourth in 7:30.3 and 14th-seeded Georgetown last in 7:33.1.

“From what I saw during the season, BU and Columbia had about the same speed,” said Hatton. “Our crew just really prepared for every scenario and came back from being a half length behind at 1,000 meters to eventually row through Columbia.

“This varsity boat has changed so dramatically throughout the season, especially at the end,” continued Hatton. “It really showed a lot of maturity and courage to make changes in their technical rowing.”

BU will join Princeton, Radcliffe, Yale and Dartmouth in the varsity eight Grand Final at 5:00 p.m.

Next was the varsity four “A” race, in which fifth-seeded BU again steadily rowed to second place and a third trip to the Grand Final. The Terriers finished behind second-seeded Brown (8:31.7), and ahead of eighth-seeded Navy (8:46.4) and 11th-seeded Georgetown (9:00.2). BU will go head-to-head with Penn, Radcliffe, Northeastern and Yale in the Grand Final at 3:15 p.m.

Finally, in the varsity four “B” race, BU’s boat consisting of three freshmen and a pair of sophomores, finished behind Brown (8:43.0), Princeton (8:43.7) and Northeastern (8:49.9), with a time of 8:56.8 to make the Petite Final versus Boston College at 2:30 p.m.