Rowing Puts Four Crews in SIRA Championships Grand Finals
4/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - The Alabama Rowing team put four crews into Sunday's Grand Finals here at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship Regatta being held at the Melton Lake Rowing Venue this weekend.
"We raced well out there today," Alabama head coach Larry Davis said. "We posted our fastest times ever today, on any course, and we look forward to going out tomorrow and taking aim at bringing home some medals."
All five of the Tide's boats advanced to tomorrow's finals with the Novice and Varsity 4+ boats and the Novice and First Varsity 8+ boats advancing to the Grand Finals with a chance to medal while the Second Varsity 8+ will compete in the Petite Final.
"We'll have to row our best tomorrow to have a chance to medal," Davis said. "Things were tight today out on the course and will be even tighter tomorrow. We need to go out and row with the confidence we showed today."
Alabama's First Varsity 8+ posted a time of 6:31.58, less than two seconds behind Purdue which won the first heat today. Both teams will advance to finals.
"It was a really exciting race," Davis said. "And to come away with the fastest time by an 8 in our history was a great thing to see."
The Tide's Second Varsity 8+ finished fourth in its heat with a 7:09.36, just behind SMU's 7:07.67, with a time that would have advanced to the Grand Finals from the event's other heat.
"It was just the luck of the draw," Davis said. "We needed to be in the other heat or two and a half seconds faster and we'd be in the grand final tomorrow. But we raced well as did the other teams in our heat."
The Tide's Varsity 4+ won both its preliminary heat and its semi finals heat to advance to Sunday's Grand Final. The Tide's semi-finals time was 7:48.23.
The Tide's Novice 4+ finished second in both the prelims and semi-finals to advance. The Novices posted an 8:26.14 in the semis. In the Novice 8+ race, Alabama finished third with a 7:16.55 to advance to Sunday.
Finals action gets started early tomorrow morning with the first race getting underway at 7:40 a.m.
