MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University rowing team plays host to Robert Morris in a scrimmage, on Saturday, May 1, on the Monongahela River in Morgantown, West Virginia.
 
This is the second time the two schools faced each other this season. In the previous race at Robert Morris on April 18, the Mountaineers won both Varsity 8+ races and the Varsity 4+ race to defeat Robert Morris, 3-0, in its first scored event of the season in Neville Township, Pennsylvania.
 
"Although we're nearing the end of the regular season, a late-season scrimmage is highly beneficial, because it allows us to repeatedly work on aspects of our racing that we can't do in normal racing situations," WVU rowing coach Jimmy King said. 
 
The launch for tomorrow's scrimmage will start at 10 a.m. ET, with the racing consisting of the 1V8+, 2V8+ and 1V4+ boats for WVU, and Robert Morris will boat its 1V8+, 2V8+, 3V8+, 1V4 and 2V4+ teams.
 
The first set of scrimmage races will be 2x3' modeling the starting 3' of a 2k race, then the finishing 3' of a race.
 
The second set of scrimmage races will be 3x2', similarly modeling the start, middle and end of a 2k race.
 
While this scrimmage is not designed to be spectator-friendly, the best vantage point to observe parts of the scrimmage will be from the Star City docks at the Edith Barill Riverfront Park. The teams plan to utilize that stretch of the Monongahela River where the crews will race downstream past those docks, then back upstream as the scrimmage progresses. 
 
WVU's last competition was at the George Mason Invitational on Saturday, April 24, racing at the Occoquan Reservoir in the Sandy Run Regional Park in Fairfax Station, Virginia. WVU raced a Varsity 8+ and a Second Varsity 8+ and also had a boat in the Varsity 4+ event. They participated in a 2000m race, with minimal head current and 8-10mph tailwinds throughout the day.
 
WVU's first Varsity 8+ boat finished behind Villanova in its initial heat, and the second Varsity 8+ and the Varsity 4+ boats had good showings but placed behind Delaware in their heats. In the "B Final" races, all three boats showed a lot of resiliency, as the First Varsity 8+ boat finished in the No. 1 position, and the second Varsity 8+ and the Varsity 4+ boats, this time, overtook Delaware and placed first in both races.
 
2021 Schedule
May 16 (Sun.) – at Big 12 Championship; Austin, Texas (Lake Walter E Long)