Rowing Ready for Season Finale
5/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - The Alabama Rowing team closes out the 2010 season, its fourth as an NCAA Division I program, this weekend on Lake Melton in Oak Ridge, Tenn., with the South/Central Region Sprints and inaugural Conference USA Championships.
After a good week of practice, during which UA head coach Larry Davis said the Crimson Tide picked up speed, Alabama practiced on the course Friday in preparation for the two-day season finale.
"The conditions are pretty nice out there right now," Davis said. "We had a pretty uneventful trip up here and then we went out there and had what I'd call a very professional warm up. As we mature as a program, that's one of the things been one of our goals. We want to execute, from the moment we step off the bus until we're loaded up to go home, at a very high level."
This weekend marks the second consecutive year the Crimson Tide has competed at the South/Central Sprints, which is the toughest meet on the UA schedule.
Alabama is also expecting a battle within the newly formed Conference USA Rowing Championships, which is being run in concert with the South/Central Sprints. Alabama will face off against fellow Southeastern Conference program Tennessee along with Big 12 schools Texas, Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma, along with C-USA member schools SMU, Tulsa and Central Florida in the newly formed rowing league.
"Our goal in this first one is to finish in the top three which won't be an easy feat with the competition out there," Davis said of the Tide's first conference championship.
This is the third time this season Alabama has competed on Lake Melton. In the fall, the Tide swept the top spots at the Secret City Regatta and earned three medals, including a gold for the Varsity 4+, at last month's Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.
Alabama will open up the meet Saturday with the Open 4+ race at 9 a.m. ET. The races will continue throughout the day and the meet will conclude on Sunday with the finals.
