Rowing Starts Spring Season at UNC
3/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama Rowing team, in its second year as an NCAA Division I program, gets the spring season underway Saturday in a dual on Lake Wheeler against UNC.
"We're not as experienced as UNC, not as polished," Alabama head coach Larry Davis said of his young crews. "So we're going to have to pound it out in the middle 1000-meters of the course, that's where we can win the race."
The races will start at 9 a.m. ET with the Varsity 8+ race, followed by the Novice 8+ and the Second Varsity 8+ race. After a brief break the teams will then compete the Varsity 4+ and the Novice 4+ races.
"We'll be racing on a lake, which is bit different than what we're use to," Davis said. "On a river, there are more markers, more indicators. On a lake, it's a little more wide-open, our coxswains will have to do a good job of keeping everyone focused and aware of where we are in the race."
Alabama, coming off a very solid fall, actually beat the Tarheels at the Head of the Hooch, but Davis says that the head races that make up the fall season are far different than the 2000-meter match races of the spring season.
"The start and finish are more important at this distance, there isn't as much time to get into a rhythm," Davis said. "We'll need to be ahead 1500m into the race to have a chance to win."
The weather may also play a factor. The forecast indicates rough weather which will make the course choppy. The Tide had some experience with the chop earlier in the week during practice on its home course, the Black Warrior River.
"With the weather we had this week in Tuscaloosa, it got pretty junky out there," Davis said.
