UCO Ready To Open Rowing Season

3/7/2012 5:25:00 PM

SEASON OPENER ON TAP: Central Oklahoma kicks off its spring season at the OU Invitational this weekend on the Oklahoma River.

With the increased number of competitors this year, the event will be a two- division format, each containg four universities. The Bronchos will compete against Creighton, Southern Methodist and Oklahoma City University.

Each team will be competing in a round-robin style the first two days of competition. The Varsity 8+, 2nd Varsity 8+, and Varsity 4+s races will be scored at 15, nine and three points each respectively. Sunday's racing will be duel between the teams that placed the same in each of their respective divisions.

FIRST SHOWING: This is the first time the Bronchos have attended the OU Invitational and it also marks an earlier start to the season.

“We're making a concerted effort to race a harder schedule than before,” head coach Andrew Derrick said. “ This is going to be some very tough racing for us, but hopefully it makes us tougher and faster in the long run.”

In the previous years the first race of the year had been a series of duels in Florida against fellow South Region Division II teams. The Bronchos will still be training in Florida and attending the duels March 23-24, but will be going in with more race experience than ever before.

BRONCHO LINE-UPS: From Cox to Bow, Amy Van Buskirk, Rachel Kliewer, Jenna Goodner, Jessica Lawson, Michaela Rabenhorst, Kristin Philhower, Samantha Elliott, Leslie Dixon and Kelsey Philhower have earned spots in the UCO Varsity eight.

The Varsity 4 of coxswain Alexandra Capitol and rowers Brittany Rawlins, Sarah Jones, Michaela Stam and Jennifer Hagen. The Varsity 4 is a mix of some experience and some very young athletes such that Captiol, Stam and Hagen are novice athletes.

UCO's 2V8+ which is also their Novice 8+ consists of Jasmine Espino, Chelsea Robinette, Jennifer Lee, Kirsten Clark, Ariel Good, Karen Hoke, Kasey Godwin, Rachael Baalman and Kimberly O'Dell. And the 2V4+ rounds out the UCO Entries with Emily Hall, Rebekah Holman, Courtney Craig and Shayna Perry, the coxswain will be Am Van Buskirk or Jasmine depending on the day.

FAMILIAR COMPETITION: This regatta includes familiar competition to the Bronchos from their first race of the year last fall when UCO competed against SMU at the Head of the Oklahoma. The Bronchos fell to the Mustangs by 35 seconds during head racing and 3.8 seconds in the 500m Night Sprints.

RACE VIEWING: The races will take place at the Exchange Boathouse located at 1401 S. Exchange Ave. in Oklahoma City. The races will start from the western most part of the Oklahoma River in the Exchange Riverway, near S May Avenue. They finish close to the launching dock of the exchange boathouse, 2000m away from the start.

RACING: The Bronchos will be racing Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. If there is inclement weather Friday's racing will be placed Sunday morning and finals will be done Sunday afternoon. Below is the proposed schedule of events including for the UCO Bronchos.

Proposed Schedule
Friday
5:30 p.m. - 2V8 UCO v CU
6:10 p.m. - 2V4 UCO v SMU
6:20 p.m. - V4 UCO v OCU
6:30 p.m. - V8 UCO v OCU

Saturday
9:30 a.m. - 2V4 UCO v Tulsa
10:30 a.m. - V4 UCO v CU
10:40 a.m. - 2V8 UCO v CU
10:50 a.m. - V8 UCO v CU
5:20 p.m. - 2V4 UCO v SMU
5:30 p.m. - V4 UCO v SMU
5:40 p.m. - 2V8 UCO v SMU
5:50 p.m. - V8 UCO v SMU

Sunday
Racing will take place between 7:00-11:00a.m. depending on the results.
7:10 a.m. - 1st place 2N8
7:20 a.m. - 1st place N8
7:30 a.m. - 1st place 2V4
7:40 a.m. - 1st place V4
7:50 a.m. - 1st place 2V8
8:00 a.m. - 1st place V8

Print Friendly Version

Related Videos

Related Stories