GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The No. 1 Mercyhurst College women's varsity eight fell in its first race of the spring season as the Lakers took second place at the 45th Annual Mid America Collegiate Rowing Association Championships (MACRA) in Grand Rapids. Due to flooding on the Grand River the championships was relocated to the Bass River Quarry 25 miles east of Grand Rapids.
In the women’s varsity eight, the Lakers perfect season came to an end at the hands of Grand Valley. Grand Valley used a very powerful start that saw them take an early one length advantage that they continued to stretch throughout the race. It took the Lakers the second half to get on track, but GVSU had built an insurmountable lead for the gold.
Despite losing for the first time this season head coach Adrian Spracklen was pleased with their performance.
“In the grand scheme of things this race had no impact on our future plans. We did not taper for this race and in fact had won of our hardest practices the day before the race. We had intended from the beginning of the week to use this race as part of our training in preparation for the Dad Vails. The ladies were very tired today even before racing started, but that was part of our plan. We will taper now and get ready for the Dad Vail next week.”
In some very challenging cross head wind conditions for the morning heats.,all the Mercyhurst boats made it to the finals. Up first for the Lakers was the woman’s varsity four that found its way to the medal podium. Leading through much of the race in the strong cross wind, the Lakers could not close in the final 300 metersas Northwestern and Cleveland State pulled through to take gold and silver.
The next event had the undefeated lightweight men competing in the open weight category in preparation for the Dad Vail next weekend. The four took a commanding early lead and stretched the field out to win comfortably by 10 seconds.
With the win the men’s lightweight four, (Kurtis Boyd, Jovan Jovanovic, Chris Register, Mike Baggaley and coxswain Ryan Browning) finished a perfect regular season at 40-0 and should figure to receive the top seed at the Dad Vail.
In the freshmen events, the women’s four took fourth in the final just missing out on a medal, and the men’s four rowed their best race of the season finishing second to a very fast Ohio State crew.
In a battle of the two Mercyhurst pairs against Lawrence University, the Lakers A boat of Stanislav Kostic and Mike Orzolek beat the Mercyhurst B boat of Ben Caplinger and Ben Wells, who in turn handily beat the Lawrence University pair.
The men’s varsity eight rowed a spirited race to finish second behind Grand Valley and ahead of the University of Michigan. "That was a fun race to be a part of," said Boyd. "We never let the rating drop below 37and at the end we were at a 40.”
The Dad Vail regatta starts on Friday with the heats and continues Saturday with the semifinals and finals. All Mercyhurst alumni are encouraged to attend as there will be a catered alumni tent provided by the development office on Friday and Saturday.
The seeding for the Dad Vail is expected out by Tuesday.
Women’s Varsity four
Gold Northwestern University 7:43.3
Silver Cleveland State University 7:57.41
Bronze Mercyhurst College 8:06.3
Men’s Varsity Four
Gold Mercyhurst College 6:19.13
Silver University of Dayton 6:29.4
Bronze University of Michigan 6:40.4
Men’s Pair
Gold Mercyhurst ‘A’ 7:02.26
Silver Mercyhurst ‘B’ 7:20.93
Bronze Lawrence University 7:34.65
Women’s Freshman Four
Gold Grand Valley ‘A’ 7:23.01
Silver Northwestern 7:33.34
4th Mercyhurst College 8:01.75
Men’s Freshman Four
Gold Ohio State University 6:23.94
Silver Mercyhurst College 6:33.4
Bronze University of Michigan 6:35.29
Men’s varsity eight
Gold Grand Valley 5:16.26
Silver Mercyhurst 5:22.42
Bronze University of Michigan 5:26.5
Women’s Varsity eight
Gold Grand Valley State 5:51.3
Silver Mercyhurst College 6:10.62
Bronze Michigan State University 6:41.83
Full results available at row2k.com