May 21, 2008

Bronx, N.Y. - The Fordham University women's lightweight 4 qualified to compete at the 2008 Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, N.J. to be held on June 6 and 7. The IRA is the official Division I National Collegiate Championship for men's and women's lightweight rowing.

The Rams qualified for the IRAs through the Atlantic 10 Championships and are one of six teams selected to compete nationwide in the women's lightweight four. Here are the six qualifiers:

Fordham University (A10 qualifier) Tulsa University (SIRA qualifier) Loyola Marymount University (WIRA qualifier) University of Pittsburgh (Dad Vail qualifier) Princeton University (07 IRA qualifier) University of Wisconsin (07 IRA qualifier)

The Fordham lightweight 4 is comprised of Coxswain Christina Costa, Greta Fleischner (stroke), Stephanie Narduzzo (3), Francesca Andrea (2) and Jennifer Daniels (bow).

The women will be joined at the IRAs by the men's lightweight 8 which qualified by winning the Dad Vail Regatta on May 9th and 10th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A total of twelve men's teams nationwide were selected to compete at the championships. The men are currently ranked ninth in the nation. Here are the current top ten national rankings for the men's lightweight 8 according to the cMAX rankings (as of May 20, 2008):

1. Princeton 2. Cornell 3. Yale 4. Navy 5. Dartmouth 6. Georgetown 7. Harvard 8. Columbia 9. Fordham 10. Penn