April 8, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC - After overcoming jet lag from the trip to San Diego, the Hawks loaded up the trailer again to head to Washington, DC, for the George Washington Invitational to face Navy, Georgetown, Delaware, Clemson and GW in the last tune up before the conference championship.

The Freshman 8 began the weekend at the GW Invitational with a big win over George Washington. The Freshman 8 won 2 of 3 races, besting GW and Georgetown, and falling in a heartbreaker to Navy.

The 2nd Varsity 8 and Varsity 4 had strong rows throughout the weekend, showing great improvements from over the past few weeks and maintaining confidence that the improvement will continue thru the Dad Vails. The Hawks lined up against Georgetown, Clemson, Navy and GW for the three races.

The Varsity 8 had a very solid weekend, falling to Navy in a hard-fought race in a fantastic effort by both crews. The Hawks had a disappointing row against GW on Friday with the young crew sitting two seats down on the Colonials practically the entire race. "We were disappointed that we did not attack especially in the final strokes of the race," said coach Gerry Quinlan.

The V8 finished the weekend with a win over the Hoyas of Georgetown in a very strong, controlled race in 20mph winds and chop. "For a young boat we showed great maturity through a tough day and a tough season," said Quinlan.

The Hawks are off from racing until the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships in two weeks. "The break comes at a great time for us. We have earned a break as we've raced every weekend since March 10. The last three weekends were two-day races, so we are pretty fatigued right now," said the coach. "We have shown great early season speed and we are ready to recover a bit and get some speed work done in preparation for the A10's and Dad Vail's."