It was a pleasure to head to Oak Ridge, Tennessee for racing this weekend at an old Virginia favorite, SIRAs. Compared to our first couple of races, the conditions were picture perfect down in the ever-hospitable south. We traveled with five 8+s, two 1Xs, and one 2X.
Women’s Single (1st of 8)
Fourth year Ashley Gale raced the W1X and took first in the time trial with a time of 7:38.72. In the first final on Sunday, Ashley posted the fastest time, 8:40.43, and brought home the first gold of the weekend.
Men’s Single (12th of 13)
After overcoming injury, fourth year Nika Lomdize, got back to racing in the M1X. He placed 9th in the time trial and advanced to the B Final with a time of 8:15.97. In the B Final, Nika powered down the course, playing a game of cat and mouse with the competition until muscle cramping overtook him in the last 500m; he placed 6th with a time of 9:43.65.
Men’s Double (2nd of 12)
Two lightweights joined forces for the 2X entry. The small but mighty double took 2nd in the time trial with a time of 6:30.09 and moved on to the A final. In their final, our 2X got bested by Georgia Tech’s double [editor’s note: they had no V8 entry]. Our double brought home silver with a time of 7:35.56 ahead of Alabama, UGA, Chattanooga, and Notre Dame.
Second Novice Eight (2nd of 6)
The 2N raced for lanes on Saturday, coming in 2nd behind the Fighting Irish with a time of 5:49.55, placing ahead of Purdue, UGA, VT, and Texas. In the final our 2N8 finished behind Notre Dame once again. They won silver with a time of 6:40.07, ahead of UGA, Purdue, VT, and Texas.
Novice Eight (1st of 15)
The Novice 8 had no problem finishing in the top 12 in time trials to qualify for semis; they cruised down the course and took first with a time of 5:31.75.
In the semi-final, our N8 again finished ahead of the pack, easily qualifying in the top 3 to move on to the grand final. They took first with a time of 6:23.13 over Alabama, Purdue, Georgia Tech, William and Mary and Tulane.
In the grand final, our 1N8 had a great performance. They took home gold with a time of 6:20.72, almost 10 seconds ahead of the nearest competition. ND, VT, Alabama, Purdue, and Clemson finished in their wake.
JV Eights (2nd & 8th of 14)
With no 3V8 racing, both our 2V and 3V raced as JV Eights. Both placed in the top 12 in time trials and moved on to semis. The 2V took first overall with a time of 5:21.74 and the 3V placed 7th with a time of 5:37.02.
In two semi-finals, top 3 finishers placed into the A final and the bottom three placed into the B final. Our 2V finished first in their semi with a time of 6:08.41 ahead of Notre Dame, UNC, Purdue, ND B, Clemson. Our 3V finished 5th in their semi behind FIT, Jacksonville, FIT B, Embry-Riddle with a time of 6:26.47.
In the Petite Final, the 3V placed third behind Purdue’s 2V and Notre Dame’s 3V. Their time of 6:29.43 narrowly edged out Embry-Riddle’s 2V by less than a second. Colorado’s and Clemson’s 2Vs rounded out the field.
In the Grand Final, our 2V took home silver behind FIT with a time of 6:16.06. They finished ahead of Jacksonville, Notre Dame, the Tar Heels, and FIT’s 3V.
Varsity Eight (2nd of 21)
The V8 easily placed in the top 18 in time trials to move to semis, with a time of 5:10.44 they were about half a second off of first place Florida Institute of Technology.
In their semi-final, the V8 easily took first place over Purdue, Jacksonville, Clemson, Central Florida, and Wichita State. Their time of 5:52.95 posted the fasted of all three semis by almost 6 full seconds.
In the Grand Final, the V8 dueled FIT the entire race until the bitter end. Our V8, turned heads, literally in the FIT boat, when they dug in and refused to let the scholarshiped foreign nationals in FIT’s eight walk away. Ultimately their heroic performance of walking back through FIT ran out of water during the sprint, and the V8 took home silver with a time of 5:53.19. They finished ahead of UNC, Delaware Heavies, Marietta, and Purdue.
Our total haul included 39 medals, bookoos of betting shirts, and the team points trophy. The team will be back in action at the end of exams at Dad Vails on May 11th and 12th!