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May 11-Gonzaga University's women's varsity eight is bringing home a national championship, while the Bulldog men finished fifth as the ECAC National Rowing Invitational concluded its two-day run Sunday on the Cooper River
May 11-Gonzaga University's women's varsity eight is bringing home a national championship, while the Bulldog men finished fifth as the ECAC National Rowing Invitational concluded its two-day run Sunday on the Cooper River.
The Bulldog women battled Holy Cross in a two-boat race until the number two seat for Holy Cross caught a crab with about 250 meters to go and the Bulldogs capitalized for the Grand Final victory in 6:56. New Hampshire finished second about six seconds back of the Bulldogs.
"It was a great race and Holy Cross really hit some misfortune," Gonzaga head women's coach Glenn Putyrae said of his club's good fortune. "We rowed a great first 500 meters, a strong second 500 and then Holy Cross and us separated from the rest of the field. It was a two-boat race."
The Bulldogs advanced to the Grand Final by finishing second in the first semifinal in 7:04.2. New Hampshire won the semifinal in 7:03.5.
The championship boat for the Bulldogs was comprised of coxswain Courtney Haase, Cynthia Savoca, Maria Bokulich, Renee Holl, Jenifer Gehlsen, Breah Neimiec, Karen O'Hagan, Kristi Aamodt and Bridget Troy.
The Bulldog men's varsity eight finished third in the second semifinal to advance to the Grand Final. Michigan, ranked 18th, captured the crown followed by Hobart, Marist and Virginia. Rhode Island was sixth.
Gonzaga, who received votes last week and was the first team listed in the "others receiving votes" category, "ran out of the gas" the final 30 strokes, according to head men's coach Dan Gehn.
"All boats were even after 500 meters, with Marist, Hobart and MichiganÊ beginning to break out at 1,000 meters," Gehn said. "We battled with Virginia for the fourth and fifth spot the rest of the way, pulled ahead with about 500 meters to go and then ran out of gas."
Gehn was more pleased with his team's outing Sunday than he was following Saturday's fourth-place heat finish that just did qualify the Bulldogs for Sunday's semifinals.
"We had some steering issues with the boat we used Saturday, so we rigged a new boat Saturday night to use Sunday, got in and rowed well," Gehn said of the borrowed shells.
Gonzaga's men boat consisted of coxswain Elaine Parry, Mark Voorhees, Pat Haffey, Connor Barry, Nathan Wilson, Ben Foley, Jeff Kiely, Brad Hughes and Mike Baisch.
Complete official standings and times were not posted at the race site nor were they available late into Sunday evening on the ECAC rowing web site.
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