May 6, 2007
Fairfax County, Va. - Both the Fordham men's and women's rowing teams made their longest trip of the spring season a great success as they won medals in five of seven events at the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships on the Occoquan Reservoir on Sunday May 6th.
In women's action, the novice four rowed a strong heat finishing second to Carnegie Mellon and advanced directly to the Grand Final. In the Final, this well coached crew showed remarkable improvement as they challenged Duquesne for the bronze medal. Their colossal effort fell just short as they settled for a very strong fourth. They had been several lengths behind Duquesne at A-10's and came with a few seconds of making up that entire margin.
The Novice Eight was clearly the most exciting and dramatic race of the day, especially if you happened to be cheering for the Big Maroon. As the race developed, Maryland took command of the field and although pressed by William and Mary seemed to be in control with 500 meters to go. Fordham had been pushing hard the whole race but looked to be out gunned by two stronger crews as they held a solid third place position going into the final 500. This look was deceiving as Fordham started sprinting early and began moving back on both teams. W&M responded and began to really press Maryland, and then disaster struck the Maryland boat with less than 30 strokes to go. A behind the back crab in the middle of the Maryland shell completely broke their rhythm and they never recovered. Fordham found one more gear in the final twenty strokes, elevated their rating to forty-one strokes per minute and flew by both W&M and the faltering Maryland crew to win by just under three seconds over W&M as Maryland managed to finish fourth.
The final race of the day, the Varsity Eight, was a very solid effort by the Rams. With only four entries in this event, it was a straight final but one that appeared challenging as George Mason is enjoying a strong season and had recently beaten a crew the Rams had lost to earlier in the season. In addition, Mary Washington has a well coached crew that also has good credentials. The Big Maroon took the lead in this one right from the start and fought off every challenge by both these crews with Loyola trailing another few lengths astern. The Rams continued to extend their lead and opened water in the last 500 meters of the race course but GM and MW were locked in a sizzling battle for second. GM and MW sprinted hard and moved back slightly on Fordham in the final few strokes. Fordham won by about a boat length with Mary Washington next and George Mason two tenths of a second back of the Eagles and Loyola trailing by another eighteen seconds.
The Fordham crew will next be in action from May 11-12 when the Rams travel to Philadelphia to compete in the prestigious Dad Vail Regatta.
