Nov. 12, 2009

Sprint racing is not something most college rowing teams do in the fall.

But with all the major fall distance races behind them and a winter of indoor training coming, the UMass-Lowell rowing team is headed down to South Jersey and Philadelphia for back-to-back regattas this weekend looking for speed and good competition over the traditional racing distance of 2000 meters.

"This is a good way to wrap up a solid fall campaign and give our athletes an sense of how we measure up against some good Mid-Atlantic competition with the Spring season in mind," said head rowing coach Veronika Platzer.

First up is the Frostbite Regatta, Saturday on the Cooper River, in Camden, New Jersey. The River Hawks will boat two freshman/novice eights, a varsity women's four and a novice men's four.

Participating are student-athletes Eddie Bruce, Chanthu Phauk, Kate Dufault, Mary O'Leary, Katrina Walther, Ianna Hondros-McCarthy, Janine Estes, Amanda Murray, Kerry Siebert, Emily Graham, Irene Cassidy, Sarah Atherton, Bryan Fricot, Ben Biesek, John Fishbein, Josh Turner, Mike Strain, Kevin Sarge, Will Deady, and Alex Duval.

They will face competition from such colleges as Delaware, Temple, Marietta, Drexel and LaSalle. The racing will shift on Sunday to Philadelphia and the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta where the men and women freshman/novice eight will again race.

Also competing at a different level this weekend is senior captain Daniel Brooks, who will row the single in the U.S. Rowing Fall Speed Order, a two day test of fitness and rowing ability that are the beginnings of the selection process for the 2010 U.S. National Teams.