OAK RIDGE, TENN. –  The Central Oklahoma women's rowing team took on a very competitive field at the 2014 Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships, held over the course here Friday and Saturday.

After making their way through heats and semifinals, the Broncho Varsity 8+ once again found themselves in the Grand Final, finishing sixth overall.
 
The Central Novice 8+ also made it to the Grand Final for the first time in program history, also finishing sixth.

Beautiful conditions led to fast racing on Friday afternoon, as the Novice 8+ took second in their heat and advanced to Saturday morning's semifinals, only falling to Kansas State. The Varsity 4+ placed third in their heat to the College of Charleston and Tampa, also advancing to the semifinals.
 
A quick start for the Broncho Varsity 8+ put them bowball-to-bowball with George Washington during the early stages of their heat, but they would eventually take second in their heat, satisfied to advance to Saturday's crucial semifinal.
 
Saturday morning's semifinal for the Novice 8+ put them up against Georgia, Purdue, Kansas State, Washington-St. Louis and Tennessee-Chattanooga. The novices took care of business and advanced to the afternoon's Grand Final with a third place finish, more than 20 seconds ahead of the fourth-place finisher.
 
The Broncho Varsity 4+ struggled to find a good rhythm during their semifinal, eventually finishing sixth and advancing to the C Final against Tulane, Colorado, Florida, Purdue and Oklahoma City.
 
In possibly the closest race of the morning, the Central Varsity 8+ narrowly took third place in their semifinal and advanced to the Grand Final for the second year in a row.  With 600 meters left in the race, OCU pulled even and just ahead of the Bronchos for the last qualifying spot. A late push allowed the Central crew to pull even and put their bowball out front, finishing just 0.7 seconds ahead of OCU.

The afternoon's Grand Final for the Novice 8+ was very competitive, with the Bronchos staying even with Georgia Tech for most of the course, but eventually falling behind to finish sixth. Kansas State won the event with a time of 7:18.20.
 
 "We're extremely proud of how the novices performed this weekend," said graduate assistant Travis Hall. "This is the first time they have been in a large-regatta environment and they adapted admirably. Now we're looking forward to getting back into fours and preparing for SMU."
 
 The C Final of the Varsity 4+ was again very competitive, with Central battling for positioning along the entirety of the course. At the end, the Broncho crew finished fifth, less than a second behind fourth-place Florida and more than eight seconds ahead of sixth-place OCU.
 
In the marquee event of the day, the Broncho Varsity 8+ took sixth in an extremely competitive Grand Final, featuring three Division I opponents and defending Division II champion Nova Southeastern. Kansas State won the event with a time of 6:49.60.
 
"Overall it was a great weekend," said head coach Andrew Derrick. "Two of three boats in the Grand Final in a deep field is pretty good. The V4+ is faster than they showed, we just got to find a combination that works."
 
"It was a great experience for the novices, and they are coming out of the weekend with a better understanding of what it means to race hard.  I am especially proud of the V8+s performance and the toughness they showed this weekend.  There were easily 10 crews that could have made the Grand Final and they did what they had too to grab the last spot, while dealing with some pretty significant injuries and sickness.  We just need to heal up as best we can before this weekend and heading into finals."
 
The Bronchos will have little down time before their next racing, which will take place on Saturday, April 26 against Southern Methodist.  The duel will take place on White Rock Lake and will feature races in the Varsity 8+, Varsity 4+ and Novice 4+ categories.
 
 Full results from the weekend's racing can be found here.