Oct. 26, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's women's rowing team continued its exhibition season at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta in Philadelphia on Saturday. The Hawks boated an Open Four, two Freshmen Eights, a Club Eight and a Championship Eight. The conditions worsened throughout the day with the day ending with 40 mph gusts and heavy wind.

"We are continuing to mix the boats around to give our athletes a chance to step up and react to race situations- and we have been very impressed with our rows today especially with the conditions," said head coach Gerry Quinlan.

The Open Four and Freshmen Eights started off the day with solid rows finishing 12th of 26 in the Four and 12th and 19th out of 40 in the Freshmen Eights, showing a dramatic improvement sincs the Navy Day Regatta.

The Club Eight finished a very strong third place out of 28, passing several crews in the first 2000m. The Hawks took control and executed impressively through the high wind and rough water finishing with a time of 17:52.

The Championship Eight started off strong, moving through two crews in the first half of the race, but ran into some trouble in the beginning of the second half. While passing another crew at the Columbia Avenue Bridge the Hawks took the turn too wide and got tangled up with Philadelphia University for 30 to 40 seconds.

"After we broke free we picked up right where we left off and were able to get through a couple more crews - the collision definitely set us back but the crew responded very well," said Quinlan. Even with the setback the Hawks' Eight was able to finsh a strong fifth in the premier event.

The Hawks will wrap up the Fall Season at the Frostbite Regatta on November 8th.