May 13, 2005

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's men's Varsity 8 outdueled crosstown rival Temple in its opening heat to advance directly to Saturday's semifinal and kick-off a suprising day of competition at the 2005 Dad Vail Regatta on the Schuylkill River.

Among the favorites to claim the weekend's point title, SJU and Temple moved ahead of the pack early and held substantial leads on the field over much of the course. The Hawks maintained a length lead down the stretch and reached the finish line first in a time of 5:49.40 tp capture their heat and avoid rowing back in the afternoon's repechage.

In late afternoon action, the Men's Freshman 8 was suprised in the heats, placing fourth and missing advancing by 0.22 hundreths of a second. The Lightweight 4, meanwhile also placed fourth in its heat (7:27.11), behind Santa Barbara, Boston College and Duquesne and failed to advance.