Dear Alumni and Friends,
The spring has been an exciting time for our rowers. On March 30, we kicked off the season with two dual races on Bucknell’s home course on the Susquehanna River, racing five eights total: three varsity eights and two novice eights.
In the first round, we swept Rutgers University (ACRA V8 finalist 2023) with all five boats. The second round was against Michigan, which is always a special match-up. In the V8 and 2V8, we had two decisive wins against our big rival, which was great. The 3V lost by a length. It was great to see the Novice eight taking a one-length win over Michigan and the second novice eight fighting to the end to lose by one length. Overall, winning 8 out of 10 races against two top ACRA programs was great, but the work just started.
This weekend (April 13), we’ll be racing at the GW Invitational on the Potomac. Racing will happen on Saturday, a morning session around 10 a.m. and an afternoon session around 4 p.m. Please follow the alumni Facebook group as well as Instagram for details.
On April 20-21 we will be racing at SIRA in Oak Ridge, TN, against some of the hot favorites for this year’s national championship later in May. Besides Notre Dame, we will also race Colgate, FIT, Purdue plus many others.
The last home race will be against UNC on April 27 on the Rivanna.
In other great news, we now have a new small boat fleet with six pairs/doubles and four singles – despite most of the spring races being in eights, we are utilizing these awesome new boats for skills training in the afternoons as well as some sessions in the morning.
Spring Fundraising
Having made major investments into our infrastructure and equipment this fiscal year, we will have to keep fundraising until the last day of our fiscal year (June 30) to make this year’s very ambitious budget. Having seen amazing spring sprints in the past, we are counting on your support to make it happen. We are looking to close the following gaps:
- For current team members’ parents: $18,000
- Alumni and Friends: $78,000
Additional ways to donate:
- Online Giving
- Checks can be mailed to the following address. Make the check out to the ‘account name’ selected and add the ‘allocation number’ in the memo
UVA Fund Gift Processing Services
PO BOX 400314
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4314
- Stock and Wire/ACH Transfer
- Matching grant programs – connect with your employer to see if you have any programs available!
Let’s keep the early momentum of this season going – all the way, Hoos!
Go Hoos,
Frank Biller
Head Coach