Dad Vail Regatta

May 19, 2016

Women's Team

Philadelphia, PA - The Women's Varsity 4+ raced in the time trial on Friday afternoon and came in 8th place overall of 32 competitive varsity and club teams. The boat got off the water proud of their placement but still wanting to get to the Grand Finals. On Saturday the girls raced in the second heat of the semi finals and placed 3rd. The boat raced a tough 2k being only .1 seconds away from Brock in 2nd and 3.2 seconds away from Drexel in 1st. Extremely happy with their success next to these varsity programs, however the sting stuck with the team by not going to the Grand Finals of Dad Vail by 0.1 seconds.

The Women also had a Novice 4+ entered. The WN4+ were coming off of a victory at the MACRA championship regatta but faced some fast boats in the heats. The top 3 boats in each heat advanced to the Semi-finals. Unfortunately they placed 4th in a very close race. Only four seconds separated them from first. It was very close till the very end with the bearcats racing hard through the finish.

The Women's team is back in Cincinnati preparing for the ACRA National Championship regatta in Gainesville,GA on May 28!

Men’s Team

The University of Cincinnati Men’s Rowing team travelled to Philadelphia on Wednesday, May 11 to compete in the prestigious Dad Vail Regatta. The Men’s Varsity Team fielded two boats under the coaching of Brian Pack. The Bearcats entered into the Men’s Varsity Heavyweight Eight to compete for the Richard O’Brien Trophy and the Men’s Varsity Heavyweight Four to compete for the Thomas A. Curran Cup. The Men’s Freshmen/Novice Team, coached by Stephan Abt, entered into the Men’s Novice Eight race to vie for the Toby Wallace Bowl.

The team was able to practice the course on Thursday with enough time to partake in the Cincinnati Rowing Annual Philly Cheesesteak Crawl. They dined and compared the famous spots for the Philly staple. Geno’s Steaks barely edged out Pat’s King of Steaks for the second year in a row. The bearcats, satisfied with their dinner, went to bed early in preparation for some intense racing.

Early Friday morning, the Varsity Eight cruised through their heat in 6:04; three seconds behind rival Michigan, and was able to qualify straight to semifinals. The Varsity Four event had 38 entries this year and was set for a 1900 meter time trial to qualify for semifinals. The Bearcats V4 came away just short of qualification with a time of 6:25, only 5 seconds away from the cutoff. To round out racing on Friday, the Novice Eight was able to qualify for the semifinals as well, with a time of 7:02. They surged past Pittsburg, and beat them by 0.05 seconds in the sprint.

Saturday morning was met with disappointment for the Varsity Eight. In the Semifinal, the Bearcats walked away from Bucknell and Marist to finish fourth, but behind season long rival Grand Valley State. The heavyweight men failed to accomplish their two-years-in-the-making goal of the Dad Vail Grand Final, but qualified for the petite final and would get another chance at Grand Valley. The Novice Eight failed to qualify for their final, leaving only one Bearcat boat to race in the afternoon.

The Men’s Varsity Heavyweight Eight petite final at the Dad Vail Regatta was a mix of the top ACRA schools as well as fully funded programs and was the fastest competition the Bearcats will see all spring. The Varsity Eight fought a valiant race against a sizeable headwind and the wake of an Official's launch rescuing a flipped single. The Cats finished fifth in the petite final after a strong sprint to bury North Carolina by a boat length.They finished right behind the historic Philadelphia crew, St. Joseph’s. The Bearcats time was 6:16.

The Men’s Rowing Team returned back to Cincinnati after the long weekend of hard racing on the Schuylkill River to prepare for the ACRA National Championship in Gainesville, GA on 5/28. Go Bearcats!