May 16, 2008

Philadelphia, Pa. - Fordham's women's varsity and junior varsity eights finished the season with strong performances at the 70th Dad Vail Regatta on May 9-10, the nation's largest collegiate regatta, which included 130 colleges this year. Fordham's varsity rowed four solid races over the two days of the regatta, ultimately capturing eight place overall in a field of 40 Division-I crews.

On Friday morning, heavy rain and a strong tailwind produced fast racing conditions as the Rams placed third in their heat, trailing fourth-seeded Buffalo and 11th-seeded San Diego State, requiring Fordham to race again in the afternoon repechage in order to qualify for the semifinals. The Rams responded with a dominating effort, leading all the way to soundly defeat 13th-seeded Creighton by nearly nine seconds, notching the fastest time of the three repechages and the third-fastest time in the event for the day.

In the semifinals on Saturday morning, Fordham was matched with top seed Purdue and seventh-seeded Sacramento State, along with Alabama and A-10 rivals Massachusetts and Temple. In order to advance to either the grand final or petite final in the afternoon, Fordham would have to finish at least fourth in the semifinal. To do so they would have to beat at least two crews that had advanced directly to the semis without rowing a second race on Friday. As the two top-seeded crews established a solid lead early for the two spots in the grand final, the race boiled down to a three-boat race for the petite final with Alabama, Fordham and Massachusetts. With 500 meters to go, it looked as though the Rams, rowing in lane six, were solidly in fourth place, but Massachusetts picked up the pace in lane one and temporarily took over the last qualifying spot. The Rams responded, however, and rowed through the Minutemen in the closing sprint to take fourth place by a margin of less than a second. This was the first time that the Fordham women's varsity had ever defeated the UMass varsity, perennial champions of the A-10. UC-Davis won the grand final, with Sacramento second and Purdue third.

Despite the maximum effort required to qualify for the petite final, the Fordham women summoned one last strong race, racing for the fourth time in less than 30 hours. San Diego State took an early lead in the race, but Fordham, Connecticut, Alabama and St. Mary's (CA) battled down the course, as UC-Irvine fell off the pace. Fordham took over second place in the last 300 meters, passing Alabama who had finished ahead of the Rams in the morning. Fordham then had to fight off a closing charge from UConn to hold second place by an official margin of 0.165. Observers at the finish line were unable to make the call with the naked eye.

The second varsity also made a solid showing, starting with a strong heat on Friday afternoon, finishing second behind third-seeded Saint Joseph's and ahead of Alabama, Murray State and Ohio State. In the semifinals, however, Fordham came up on the short end of a narrow finish, as Tulsa held off the Rams' charge to hold second place and a spot in the final by 0.421, as gold-medal winner Purdue finished first. The Rams easily outdistanced Dayton and Marist, and their semifinal time was the seventh fastest in the field, which included 26 crews that started in the heats.

The novice four struggled with the water conditions on Friday and finished fourth in their heat, failing to qualify for the semifinals.

The final race of the season for the Fordham women will be the national lightweight championships at the IRA in June, as Fordham qualified an entry into the lightweight four event.