Novice Eight Silver Highlights Women's Rowing at Knecht Cup

Saturday, April 11

Mercer Lake - West Windsor, NJ

Temple University

Knecht Cup

Temple's Novice Eight grabbed a silver medal at the Knecht Cup

Novice Eight Silver Highlights Women's Rowing at Knecht Cup

4.12.15 | Women's Rowing

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. -- Temple's novice eight scored a silver medal finish, highlighting the action for the women's rowing team at the ultra-competitive Knecht Cup Regatta. The event featured over 70 schools competing in a multi-heat, two-day event on Mercer Lake.

Head coach Rebecca Grzybowski was happy the way her team raced this weekend. "In spite of some challenging windy conditions on Saturday that necessitated changing up the schedule a bit, it was a solid weekend all around," she noted. "I was really pleased with how the entire team handled the situation."

Four of Temple's boats advanced to grand or petite finals at the event, highlighted by a second-place overall finish from the novice eight crew. The Owls earned a spot in the grand finals by way of a win in the opening heats, and then took second to only Wisconsin in the championship race. Temple turned in a time of 7:05.12 to earn its silver medal.

The other Owl eights both grabbed spots in the petite finals. In the opening heats, the varsity eight finished fourth and earned a spot in the semifinals based on their time of 6:53.83. In semifinal racing, Temple finished third, just behind UMass and Boston College, sending the boat into the petite finals. Closing out the racing, the crew took fourth in the petite final, recording a time of 7:00.62, just over a half second off of third place.

The second varsity eight followed a similar path, advancing from the opening heats to the semifinals to the petite finals. In their first race on Saturday, the boat finished fifth to grab a spot in the semifinals. The Owls then notched a third place finish in the semis, to advance to the petite finals. Their finals race on Sunday saw the crew finish in fifth place, recording a time of 7:13.34.

In fours racing, the Owls' novice four highlighted the racing for Temple. In the opening heat, the crew placed second to earn a spot in the petite finals, where they finished fifth in a time of 8:25.55, under 2.5 seconds from a second-place finish.

Temple's varsity four and second varsity four both had solid races, but fell victim to deep fields and did not advance out of the heats. The varsity four saw a field of 24 boats in the opening round, recording a time of 8:00.70 to take sixth in its heat. The second varsity four finished second in its heat in 8:30.07, but did not advance to the next round based on overall time.

Grzybowski praised the way her team handled the three-race format at the event. "Everyone rose to the challenge, the novice eight brought home a silver medal in a very competitive field, and on the varsity level we experienced some very productive development from the heats to the semis to the finals," she said. "The experience of racing hard three times in a very short period will serve us well as we close in on the back half of our season."

The Owls are back on the water on Saturday, competing in the Kerr Cup Regatta on the Schuylkill River.

Results (PDF)

Racing Lineups

Varsity Eight	2nd Varsity Eight	Novice Eight
cox - Kelsey Franks 8 - Lily Papaleo 7 - Emily Opperman 6 - Emily Mehler 5 - Jenna Bahel 4 - Moira Meekes 3 - Callie Diguardia 2 - Annie Buckley 1 - Emily Leyland	cox - Erin Matz 8 - Lea Millio 7 - Kaitlin Grisanti 6 - Kayla Dorney 5 - Charlotte Forman 4 - Olivia Stifel 3 - Danielle White 2 - Aimee Meissner 1 - Gina Inverso	cox - Victoria Verrekia 8 - Amanda Wolfgang 7 - Janie Augustyn 6 - Amber Dutcher 5 - Rachel Phillips 4 - Sierra Derti 3 - Megan Gleason 2 - Julie Blackmon 1 - Sarah Scanlin

Varsity Four	2nd Varsity Four	Novice Four
C - Eleanor Oken 4 - Kathy Bostion 3 - Samantha Sederstrand 2 - Layla Moran 1 - Nicole Stark	C - Nicole Barth 4 - Brianne Wojciechowski 3 - Carolyn Brooks 2 - Stephanie Bragg 1 - Anne Hughes	C - Brittany Fowler 4 - Casey Alameno 3 - Kelly McGee 2 - Lisa Kennedy 1 - Meghan Fowler