Rowing Wins Two Races in Inaugural Dual Meet against Tennessee
3/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Alabama rowing team earned a pair of wins in its inaugural dual meet against Tennessee on Lake Loudon Saturday morning enduring a steady rain that continued through most of the competition.
"While the conditions weren't ideal, they were certainly better than we thought they would be in terms of the weather and we raced very well out there today," Alabama head coach Larry Davis said. "Based on what did in the fall against Tennessee, we've picked up, in the varsity crews, somewhere in the neighborhood of two boat lengths on them, about six to eight seconds."
While the two teams have met at various regattas over the three years Alabama has been an NCAA Division I program, Saturday was the first time the only two Southeastern Conference programs to sponsor rowing have met one-on-one. Tennessee is in its 13th season of NCAA competition and has made six consecutive NCAA Championship appearances.
"There are still some things that we can do better that will help us down the road, but I was very pleased with our results," Davis said. "Overall we picked up some good time; everyone put together some good aggressive races. Obviously Tennessee is a team that we want to get more competitive with and I think we've done that."
Alabama won the Novice 8+ and Second Varsity 4+ races while Tennessee crossed the line first in the First Varsity 8+, Second Varsity 8+ and First Varsity 4+ races.
"We had a good win against them in the Second Varsity 4+ race and a very close race in the First Varsity 4+ race where we just ran out of race course," Davis said. "If we had made a little stronger move, a little sooner, we might have pulled that one out; it was a good dogfight all the way down the river."
The Crimson Tide dominated the lone novice race, covering the 2,000-meter course in a time of 6:58.8, more than 22 seconds ahead of the Lady Vols. In the Second Varsity 4+ race, Alabama came out on top by more than 11 seconds with a time of 8:11.22.
"Our novices have been very, very good this year, carrying over what they did in the fall into the spring and continuing to improve," Davis said. "Today was another example of their progress and the kind of team they are."
Even in the races that the Tide didn't win, Davis was pleased with the effort his crews put in and the way the Tide is reeling in the most experienced Tennessee boats.
"In both Varsity 8+ races we were tied or slightly ahead through the first half, but they pulled ahead in the third quarter of the race and that's the part of the race where their experience showed," Davis said. "But we were faster today than we were against Clemson and Penn to open the season. We are doing the things we need to do increase our boat speed."
Alabama returns home next Saturday for its final home event of the season when the Tide will face SMU and UNC on the Black Warrior River.
