The William and Mary Rowing club attended their second race of the season on the 5000 meter course on the Occoquan Reservoir in Fairfax, Virginia. Taking not only our Varsity Men and Women, the novice member of this year’s team joined us at the Occoquan for their first competition.
The Varsity Men’s squad represented William and Mary, entering 8+s in the Championship, Lightweight, and Club divisions. The Championship 8+ had a solid row, coming in only five seconds behind one of the Naval Academy’s Lightweights, and besting competition from University of Mary Washington, George Mason University, and Liberty University. The Lightweight’s 8+ came in close, three seconds behind University of Virginia, in their heat. The Club 8+ finished behind University of Virginia, but passed Old Dominion University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland Crew Club.
The Women’s Varsity squad also represented with two 8+s and two 4+s in both the Championship and Club heats. The women’s boats faced competition from crews of schools such as Lafayette, University of Mary Washington, and Liberty. Although the Championship 4+ did not face any competition during their heat, they took the opportunity to practice along the course. The Women’s Club 4+ performed well, placing 5th out of 13 total crews, University of Mary Washington, University of Richmond, Lafayette, and Liberty being some of the schools they passed.
The Novice Men entered in an 8+ for their first race experience and the Novice Women took two 8+s. The Novice Women placed 1st and 2nd in their heat, beating Liberty University, their only competition, by over four minutes and one minute, respectively.
An interesting challenge, the William and Mary Rowing Club entered four Mixed 8+s into the Challenge, two of which medaled first and second out of 18, breaking the course record on the way to the finish.
The team expects to improve even more and bring even more competition to the Head of the Occoquan with all four squads again on November 6, 2010.