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Women's Rowing:
Anteaters Place 2nd and 3rd at WIRA Championships!
May 4, 2009
Sacramento, Calif.--The Irvine Rowing team traveled to Lake Natoma in Sacramento California for the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) Championship on May 2nd and 3rd. The Anteaters raced in the grand finals in 5 out of their 7 races and earned the first WIRA medals since 2004 in the Varsity Four and Novice Lightweight Four. The women's boats that represented Irvine in the grand finals were the Novice Light Four, Varsity Four, Varsity Light Four, Pair, and Lightweight Eight. To secure their spot in the grand finals Novice Light Four placed 2nd in their heat with a time of 8:07.4. The Varsity Four came over the finish line 2nd with a time of 7:42.6. The Varsity Light Four placed 3rd in their heat with a time of 8:29.9 and the Pair race placed 3rd with a time of 8:29.4. The Women's Lightweight 8 was a final only race on Saturday evening. To conclude a busy day of racing for these 9 very dedicated athletes the Anteaters placed 4th with a time of 7:25.1, missing the medal stand by 4.4 seconds. The first boat to earn a medal for Irvine was the women's Varsity Four. Irvine came into the final with the 2nd best time in the heats behind Gonzaga University by 4.2 seconds. In the final Irvine raced down the course challenging Gonzaga for the gold and fighting off the rest of the field to secure their 2nd place finish with a time of 7:38. This time was 3.8 seconds behind Gonzaga and 4.5 seconds ahead of Sacramento State. Heather Conniff (coxswain), Ashley Fee (4), Alex Bolt (3), Elizabeth Nguyen (2), and Allison Baker (1) stood on the medal stand, earning a silver medal for their 2nd place finish.
In the Novice Lightweight 4 grand final Irvine placed 3rd behind UC Berkeley Lightweights and Portland State University. Irvine and Portland State raced seat for the entire way down the course with the Anteaters coming in only 2.5 seconds behind Portland and 9.3 seconds ahead of the 4th place crew Humboldt State. Earning the bronze medal for this exciting race was MarieSarah Pillari (coxswain), Julia Karczewski (4), Katy Hess (3), Erica Bell (2), and Rachel Miller (1). The Varsity Light Four placed 5th in the grand final with a time of 8:27.7 finishing ahead of Willamette University and Humboldt State University. In the Pair grand final Irvine placed 4th with at time of 8:30.2 ahead of University of San Diego and University of the Pacific. The women's Novice 8 raced Saturday in a seat for seat race in their heat placing 5th making the third final later that evening. In the third final the Anteaters came over the line 5th ahead of the 6th place crew by 27 seconds and behind the 4th place crew by 2.4 seconds. The Varsity 8 having doubled into many other events finished 9th out of the 9 schools. Next up for the Varsity Four is the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, PA on May 8th and 9th.
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