Rowing Closes Out 2009 at the South/Central Sprint Championships
5/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama Rowing team is closing out the 2009 season with its first trip to the Aramark South/Central Region Sprint Championships May 16-17 on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
"We're treating this weekend like it's the NCAA Championships," Alabama head coach Larry Davis said. "There will be several teams there that will also be at the national championships and the overall level of competition will be the highest we've seen to date."
Alabama, in its third year as an NCAA Division I rowing program, has made great strides through its first trio of seasons as a varsity program. Davis' plan to keep that progress a program staple included ramping up the competition this season. The South/Central Championships is another step in that direction.
"Not only will we face very tough competition," Davis said. "But we'll be able to gauge what kind of progress we've made through the season. With our boat speed at the end of the season, we feel like we've closed the gap with several programs, like Tennessee and we hope to be able to get in front of some programs that we've battled with over the past two-plus years, like SMU, and move ahead."
This will be the Crimson Tide's second trip to Oak Ridge this season. The Tide competed in the Head of the Tennessee Regatta in October when it posted five top-three finishes, including a pair of gold medals. Alabama is also looking to bounce back from a performance at the Dad Vail Rowing Championships that was solid, but not the Tide's best work.
"We rowed well in Philadelphia, but not our best and that made a difference in our placing and advancing to the finals of some races that, based on our boat speed going into the regatta, we probably should have," Davis said. "We are still a young program and we didn't adjust as well as we could have to the changes in format and the conditions. Again, we didn't row poorly, but there were some critical junctures where we were off and it showed. We have to learn from that and get better."
Alabama is slated to compete in four events in Tennessee - the Varsity 8+, the Second Varsity 8+, the Novice 8+ and the Varsity 4+. Races get underway at 9 a.m. ET. The preliminaries and semifinals are on Saturday and the finals are on Sunday.
