Women’s rowing has never seen a field like that in the DI Varsity 8.
Just on the numbers, there are probably a dozen crews that have a legit shot at making the final, with nine or ten of them with legit shots at medals. And that’s just on the numbers; there’s no accounting for passion.
But let’s go back to the numbers. The fastest time in the V8 heats was Brown’s 6:39.27; across the three heats, the slowest of the nine semifinal qualifying times was Virginia’s 6:42.7, and two more crews that were sent to the reps rowed under 6:43.7 – that’s 11 crews within four and a half seconds, or about one boat length. Two more crews were less than a length back from there.
The afternoon racing has been moved up to 2:30pm to avoid a predicted late-day thunderstorm, so this report will be short, as I’m heading back out to photograph the reps. More later today, including today’s photos.
For now:
Conditions: apparently on Thursday, winds caused bad enough conditions that a four swamped on the docks. Today at the start of racing, the lake was glass. Gradually the classic Indy cross-head from starboard rolled in, tho conditions remained pretty good. It sounds like Saturday could be a different story, with winds in the 30mph range threatened.
Today’s meaningless observations:
Best “first-stroke” coxswain calls (all from the first stroke of the race, instead of the standard “three-quarters,” “squeeze,” etc. :
“Hwee! Here we go ladies!”
“Let ‘er rip!”
Someone made the comment, and I’ve seen it a lot this year, so I’ll put it out there for your consideration: the bow-to-stern handholding trick right before the start: Cool, or waste of time?
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