#14 Rowing wins 2nd straight Dale England Cup

[mamasa 15,316]

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana – The 14th ranked Indiana Rowing team was able to overcome a pair of Top 20 opponents and extremely challenging conditions that limited the regatta to just four races to claim the Dale England Cup for the second straight year.

 

Indiana finished with 60 team points while Penn finish second (54), No. 20 Notre Dame third (48) and No. 16 Duke in fourth (18).

 

The conditions on Lake Lemon made racing a challenge right from the start. There was a cross-headwind with wind speeds ranging from 8-12mph and gusts up to 22mph that caused steady white caps throughout the course.

 

As a result of the conditions, the race schedule was altered to try to get the three NCAA boats for each team the opportunity to race before the winds increased. The new order of racing would be First Varsity Four, First Varsity Eight and Second Varsity Eight followed by the Second Varsity Four.

 

In the 1V4 race to start the day, the wind would not allow all four crews to get aligned properly at the start so the decision was made to have the crews row into a start at approximately 1600 meters. There was some confusion with when the start was going to take place and the teams did not all get off to an even start, with Penn and Notre Dame getting out early ahead of Indiana and then Duke. However, Indiana stayed with their race plan and was able to row back through Penn and Notre Dame to take first place by 11.53 seconds over Notre Dame and 15.98 seconds over Penn. Duke finished in fourth place, 52.07 seconds behind Indiana.

 

Next up was the 1V8 race and these boats were able to get aligned at the start and raced the entire 2,000 meters. The Hoosiers got off to a slow start but were able to fight back through the difficult conditions, especially in the second half of the course. At the finish line, it was Penn in first place with Indiana just 2.12 seconds back in second place. Notre Dame took third place just less than five seconds behind the leader and Duke was fourth nearly seven seconds off the pace.

 

The 2V8 also raced the full 2,000 meters and this race came down to a photo finish between Indiana and Notre Dame. After looking at the video, it was determined that it was a dead heat between the two schools so they shared first place. Penn was just off the pace by 0.3 tenths of a second in third place and Duke was fourth by nearly 10 seconds.

 

The final race of the morning ended up being the 2V4, and just like the 1V4 race, they were not able to get aligned at the start so they rowed into a start. The Hoosiers fought through the deteriorating conditions to cross the line in first place with Penn in second place and Duke in third. Notre Dame's boat was not able to cross the finish line after taking on water around the 1500 meter mark of the course.

 

The next event on the Indiana schedule is the Big Ten Championship at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis on May 13.

 

 

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