WVU Rowing Completes Regular-Season Competition at the George Mason Invitational

Sunday, April 23

Fairfax, VA

TBA

West Virginia University

George Mason Invitational

WVU Rowing Completes Regular-Season Competition at the George Mason Invitational

April 23, 2023 03:50 PM | Rowing

By: Mike Montoro

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University rowing team completed its regular-season competition on Sunday, April 23, at the George Mason Invitational on the Occoquan Reservoir in Fairfax Station Virginia.

WVU boated four crews in its race on Sunday: Varsity 8, Second Varsity 8, Varsity Four and Third Varsity 8. Race action in the morning heats for the Mountaineers was kicked off by the Varsity Four, which placed fourth in its heat to progress to the afternoon petite final where it placed second among five.

"All of our racing lineups were new this weekend but none more significant than in our Second Varsity Eight," WVU coach Jimmy King said. "Due largely to early morning class schedules, that group has the fewest opportunities of any of our crews to row together outside of weekends during which we're typically racing. Week to week they just roll with it understanding the nature of their situation and as their coaches, we couldn't be more pleased with how they simply get after it each weekend."

Next up was the Third Varsity Eight. With only four entries in this event, the morning race was a race for lane assignments in the afternoon final. While the Mountaineers would place fourth in each race, they were able to improve their margins to the other three crews in their afternoon final.

The Second Varsity Eight raced in a fast morning heat in which the progression to the grand final was based upon the top two places from each of two heats followed by the next two overall fastest times. Entering the last 250m of the race in third place, the Mountaineers knew they were racing to advance on time which they successfully did with the fastest of the two qualifying times. The Mountaineers would go on to place fifth in their grand final and fifth of eleven overall for the Mountaineers' best placing of the day.

As crosswinds were picking up around the start of the Varsity Eight morning heat, a sudden gust of wind caused the Mountaineers to lose their starting point just as the race was started. The ensuing actions to stay in their lane resulted in a very poor start from which the crew took a long time to recover, losing valuable time and eventually placing third in its heat, finishing 3.4 seconds out of a qualifying spot in the desired grand final. Racing in the afternoon petite final the Varsity Eight put together a complete race to finish second among five.

"Regular season racing is now done and after this last week of classes, we may actually have an easier time scheduling training even though we'll be going into exam week," King said. "Our training as a whole has progressed quite well this year, but we know there's more speed to be gained on the water between now and Big 12s."

WVU Boats (bow to stern):
V8+
Abigail Yingling, Anna Gall, Ashlea Clark, Katherine Capitan, Laurna Atkins, Violet Hewett, Maxine Cassell, Lydia Nicolai, Emily DeGlopper (c)

2V8+
Samantha Perro, Michaela Pulick, Ally Fisher, Emily Dumford, Kaira Niedoba, Helena Radford, Alexandra Farron, Ryleigh Williams, Sydney VanAuken (c)

V4+
Grace Terlion (c), Kayley Davis, Emma Higgins, Adriana Hogan, Ryleigh Rosta

3V8+
Bridget Kiely, Avery Burris, Isabelle Totton, Bailey South, Courtney Wright, Ashlynn Skeba, Sophia Gavril, Samantha Gamarra, Grace Holliday (c)

Full results can be found at
2023 George Mason Invitational Results
2023 George Mason Invitational Results 2