Rowing / April 2, 2005

UM's Varsity Eight Reaches Grand Final of Women's Cal Cup

April 2, 2005

<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>SAN DIEGO, Calif. (hurricanesports.com) – The University of Miami rowing varsity eight crew reached the Grand Final of the Women’s Cal Cup at the 32^nd-annual San Diego Crew Classic on the waters of MissionBay in San Diego, Calif. Saturday afternoon.

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Traversing over 2,000 meters in beautiful conditions, the Hurricanes’ varsity eight crew claimed second place in Heat C of the Women’s Cal Cup preliminaries with a time of 7:09.38. Miami came in second behind SacramentoState, who finished with a time of 7:06.40, and beat out crews from Temple (7:18.97), St. Joseph’s (7:20.08) and UC Irvine (7:33.81) to reach Sunday’s Grand Final.

The top boats in each heat advance to the Cal Cup Grand Final, which will take place Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (PT). The Hurricanes will face crews from Central Florida, UC Davis, San DiegoState, SacramentoState, and KansasState.

“Our goal for today was to have a quality varsity eight race,” said head coach Debra Morgan. “We had a strong race and felt really good. We are just going to need that extra spark tomorrow.”

Later in the morning, Miami’s junior varsity eight crossed the finish line with a time of 7:09.38, a little over one second ahead of Notre Dame, to place third and reach Sunday’s petite final of the women’s junior varsity eight race. The Hurricanes will face crews from OregonState, SacramentoState, Notre Dame, Tennessee and KansasState Sunday at 10:20 a.m. (PT).

“Reaching the junior varsity petite final is good for us. We had to beat a very good Notre Dame team to do it.”

“This is a great season opener. It’s worth the effort to get down here,” concluded Morgan.

San Diego Crew Classic Lineups:

Varsity Eight:

Laura Comeau (Cox)

Deidre Curran