March 7, 2008

MARION, Va. - Rowing visited Marion, Va.'s Hungry Mother State Park Friday, March 6 for a scrimmage against the Virginia Cavaliers. The varsity eight, second varsity eight, varsity four and novice eight crews raced two two broken 2,000 meter pieces, and although times weren't recorded, head coach Matt Weise was impressed with his crews' transition from working on land to water.

The varsity eight won one of five flights, but Weise was more impressed with the crew's performance than results.

"Right now, it's a matter of improvement, which was huge from Wednesday," said Weise. "They're starting to row well and figure out how to work on water, as opposed to machines. That's a big jump, and we took a big step over the last couple days.

"The second varsity eight was good, but not as strong as the varsity. They just need more time in the boats on the water. They had a decent performance, but their performance isn't quite as high as it should be."

The varsity four continued to pull as one unit, as they did with wins against Clemson on Wednesday, March 5.

"Varsity four did a really nice job," Weise continued. "They raced and performed really well. They matched their performance from Wednesday, and were probably even faster."

From the novice races, Weise saw moments of strong rowing, but stressed that consistency will greatly improve the crew's overall success.

"The novices are learning that pulling hard and consistently is important," Weise noted. "When they did that well, they won some pieces. But they need to learn to do it all the time, not just at moments in the races.

"We really looked more like a rowing team today than an on-land erging team," said Weise.

The Spartans will break until March 29, when they face Princeton and Brown in Princeton, N.J.