Rowing Ready for the Dad Vail Regatta
5/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The Alabama Rowing team takes to the water in its second postseason event of the year at the Dad Vail Regatta, the largest collegiate regatta in the United States, with over 100 colleges and Universities from the U.S. and Canada, on Friday, though the formatting will be a little different than normal.
The 71-year old regatta will be run a little different on day one of the two day event than in past due to high water on the Schuylkill River. The conditions forced regatta organizers to cancel practice today and a format change for Friday's preliminaries.
"The high water is such that tomorrow's events will be run as a head race where each boat will go off one at a time with the best times advancing to the semi-finals instead of the best placing," Alabama head coach Larry Davis said. "We didn't get a chance to practice on the river today and we would have liked to do that to get use to the course and to loosen up after a day of travel."
The current plan calls for semifinals and finals, set for Saturday, to return to the normal set up with boats going off in heats of six. The change in Friday's format will benefit some of the Tide's crews.
"With conditions the way they are, we have to be prepared for very fast racing and there will be no room for errors," Davis said. "It's going to be a challenge to say the least. Some of our crews will flourish in this format because they've been quick starters and high cadence types and I think it will be advantage for them."
The Dad Vail, which began in 1934 and found a permanent home in Philadelphia in 1953, will feature more than 100 races over the two days, though some have been canceled due to the conditions, including the women's pair, in which Alabama was slated to row. The Tide will now compete in five events, the Varsity, Junior Varsity and Novice 8+ races as well as the Varsity and Novice 4+ races.
All five of the boats Alabama sent to Philadelphia last season advanced to the semifinal round of the Dad Vail with two advancing to the finals. The Tide finished fourth in the Grand Finals of the Novice 8+, fourth in the Second Final of the First Varsity 8+.
Alabama is coming off a strong showing at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Championships which included a gold medal in the Novice 8+ championship race.
"We've picked up speed over the last three weeks and I feel like if we can make some adjustments to the new format, we have to potential to do very well this weekend," Davis said.
