SJU Athletics Photos

The Saint Joseph's University women's rowing team had a busy weekend, competing at the Head of the Schuylkill on Saturday and the Atlantic 10 Fall Regatta on Sunday. A successful two days, SJU brought home a pair of medals from the A-10 race. Saturday was an eventful day at the Head of the Schuylkill, as a number of penalties, collisions, boat stoppages and general mishaps plagued the afternoon for all of the competitors. Of the five Hawk boats entered, the First Freshman 8 turned in the best finish, despite running into a variety of problems on the course. Forced to stop several times during its race do to the regatta's “no passing under bridges” rule, the First Freshman Women's 8 still managed a tremendous fourth place finish in the 52 crew field. The boat finished behind only Princeton, Penn and Syracuse and ahead of 48 other teams including Navy, Delaware, Villanova and Georgetown. The 2nd Freshman 8 , which consisted of many women rowing just their second career race, also turned in a solid effort, finishing ahead of 18 boats - including Temple's, LaSalle's and UConn's first 8. The Varsity 8 placed 11th just five seconds behind 8th place Navy and 0.2 seconds out of 10th place, placing ahead of Drexel, Holy Cross, Villanova, and Connecticut. The 2nd Varsity 8, meanwhile, rowed in the Club 8 category and finished in the middle of the pack against many teams' 1st varsity 8s. The Hawk of Quad of senior Laurie Sparano, and freshmen Laura Hill, Jenn Linck, and Maureen Owston placed 6th overall with a time of 18:14, but was first out of the colleges in the open race - ahead of Duquesne, Johns Hopkins, Bucknell. On Sunday, the women's teams took the water for their last race of the 2002 Fall Season. The day began with a strong showing in the Quad. Rowing two quads -a varsity and a freshman - against three UMass boats and a crew from Duquesne. Both crews of scullers rowed a strong races against a highly competitive field. The Freshman 4x finished third followed by the Varsity 4x in 4th. In the freshman 8 competition, the Hawks' Freshman A boat won the event by 29 seconds over UMass in second place. The Freshman C crew, in their first collegiate competition, finished 7th in the field of 12 and the Freshman B followed directly after it in 8th place. The Varsity 8s wrapped up the day with fantastic performance against very fast competitors. The Varsity 8 eaned a bronze, finishing behind UMass and Fordham. The 2nd Varsity 8 rowed a solid race finishing ninth with a time of 16:28. The Hawks fall season is now complete.