Posted: May 9, 2009
PHILADELPHIA – Lehigh finished action on Saturday at the Dad Vail Regatta as three crews raced, including the men’s varsity 8 and freshmen 8 and the women’s varsity 8. The men’s varsity 8 posted a top-three finish in its opening race and advanced to the petite final, where it competed versus a strong field of crews.
The men’s varsity 8 crossed in a time of 5:48.149 in its opening race to defeat crews from Colgate, Drexel and Marietta. The Mountain Hawks then placed fifth in the petite final with a time of 6:32.324 versus a field that included Jacksonville, Bucknell, Florida Tech, and Colgate.
The freshmen 8 crossed in 6:20.237 to place fifth in its semifinal race, which was one spot ahead of North Carolina and placed the Mountain Hawks behind Drexel, Marietta, Georgia Tech, and Emory.
The women’s varsity 8 completed its semfinal in a time of 6:59.376 which placed the Brown and White in sixth place behind Grand Valley, Saint Joseph’s, Alabama, Sacramento and Dayton.
On Saturday, the men’s varsity 8 crew raced its way to an impressive ninth place finish out of 31 entries in its opening race as the Mountain Hawks crossed in a time of 4:06.963. Lehigh bested crews from Colgate, Delaware, Temple, Drexel, Saint Joseph’s, Florida, Minnesota, Lafayette, Alabama, and Maryland among others.
The second varsity 8 finished less than one second out of the top six, which would have given the Mountain Hawks a spot in the finals. Lehigh finished in 4:35.357, which was narrowly behind Jacksonville (4:35.055), but it did place the Brown and White ahead of Saint Joseph’s, Bucknell, Minnesota, Ohio University and Ohio State to name a few.
The men’s freshmen 8 posted a top-15 finish in its race as the Mountain Hawks finished in 4:35.415 to defeat crews from Purdue, UMass, Fordham, Villanova, UConn, Boston College, Cincinnati, Buffalo, George Mason, Penn State and Maryland among others in a field of 30.
In the women’s varsity 8 race, the Brown and White earned a spot in Saturday’s races with an 18th place showing out of 30 crews. The Mountain Hawks crossed in a time of 4:51.529 to defeat the likes of Army, West Virginia, Villanova, Ohio State, La Salle, Penn State, Stony Brook and Ohio University.
The second varsity 8 crew just missed a spot in the finals as the Mountain Hawks crossed in seventh place, two seconds out of a top-six finish which would have advanced Lehigh to Saturday. The Brown and White finished in a time of 5:18.455, placing in front of Delaware, Saint Joseph’s, Alabama, George Mason, Penn State, Fordham and Florida.
The women’s freshmen 8 finished its race in a time of 5:20.793, which placed the Mountain Hawks in 22nd place out of 32 entries.
With Saturday’s races complete, the Lehigh women are now finished with their season, while the men’s varsity 8 will return to action in two weeks at the ACRA National Championship in Tennessee.