UCO Rowing Tops Southern Methodist

3/26/2016 7:42:00 PM

DALLAS, Texas (March 26) -- Central Oklahoma took to White Rock Lake to face SMU in Division DI lineups. UCO's v4 combined with the 2v4 to create the IIv8 for this weekend's racing. UCO's 3v4 raced in the v4 event at White Rock; the v4 (UCO's 3v4) took to the course first. From the start SMU jumped out to an early 2/3rd length lead and maintained the margin through the majority of the race before pulling ahead a few more seats in the final strokes. In the end, UCO trailed SMU by two seconds.

The IIv8s dueled it out next and UCO's IIv8 jumped out early on SMU and never looked back, taking control of the race right away and moving out to a commanding lead. The Bronchos IIv8 finished with the largest margin of victory of any crew for the day (by a strong 27 seconds).

The Iv8 concluded racing for the morning with an impressive and tightly fought battle. The Bronchos jumped to a two seat lead early and proceeded to move out as far as 3/4th of a length before the thousand-meter mark. It was a back and forth fight, with neither crew being able to shake the other throughout the piece. SMU pulled back within a few seats with an early sprint, but UCO countered their move and walked back to a near one length victory. This is the first win UCO's Iv8 has had over SMU.

The Bronchos top boat gained opportune race experience and showed a lot of toughness as they battled it out seat for seat right next to SMU.

"We are very proud of the team's efforts today," Coach Andrew Derrick said. "Not just because of the two wins, though bow balls first across the line is always a good way to show we are on the right track, but because I think the team showed up and executed well. It does not matter how talented or fast we are if we cannot show it on race day. That is something we have struggled with in the past. This was a great opportunity to test ourselves and we appreciate Coach Wright's hospitality today and over the past few years. We will see SMU again when we travel to Tulsa in April, and we need to know they will be even faster, so we need to continue gaining speed as well."

The Bronchos travel to Sarasota, Fla. next weekend to participate in the FIRA Championships. This will be UCO's first opportunity of the year to square off against their Division II rivals, Barry, Florida Tech, Nova Southeastern and Rollins.

Central is ranked No. 3 in the latest national poll with Barry, last year's national champion, occupying the top spot, while Nova sits fourth and Florida Tech ninth.

Click here for this weekend's results

	Iv8	IIv8 (1v4 + 2v4)	v4 (3v4)
Cox	Aimee Witten	Christine Cataldo	Baylee Roberts
Stroke	Hannah Anderson	Kalli Schwartz	Kristal Reynolds
7	Che Douglas	Alex Heirston	Demmy Teng
6	Brooke Wolford	Erica Mitchelle	Lauren Wall
5	Mackenzie Johnson	Lauren Higbee	Shaye Hatchette
4	Deborah Reese	Andrea Messenger
3	Trista Cripe	Sydney Brennan
2	Morgan Henry	Mackenzi Richert
Bow	Lora-Lynn Loomis	Katriel Klein

Print Friendly Version

Related Videos

Related Stories