DeLAND--On a windy and chilly Saturday morning Stetson University Men's and Women's rowing teams hosted Embry-Riddle in the first of three Stetson Sprints for the spring season.

The day started with plans for all boats to race the normal 2000m distance but due to high winds the course was shortened to 2x1000m sprints for the final 5 events.  Only the Men's V8 and Women's V8's were able to row the full 2000m.  In the men's 8 Stetson boated a very young team of men with only two rowers from the varsity team and the remaining 7 (cox included) were first year rowers. 

“The guys really did a solid job of hanging with the quicker team from ERAU today”, said Stetson head coach Mark Wilson.  “The Light 8 from ERAU looked really smooth and took the water well and our boys fought hard but came up short in the rough water.” 

In the Novice Men's 4+ race there was a mix up from Embry Riddle and they boated their VLT4+ against the Hatter Novice 4+ and did not race the Heavy Varsity Four against Stetson's Varsity 4+. 

“The Novice 4+ had a hard time staying close to the Varsity crew but certainly held their own, I am sure they did not realize they were racing a Varsity boat and tried desperately to stay close and finished down about 20seconds in the rough water,” said Wilson.

In the Varsity Men's 4+ while the two boats actually raced at different times the Stetson boat edged the ERAU by about 4 seconds in the tailwind and 12 seconds in the head wind direction. “Having those two boats race head to head would have been fun to see,” said Wilson.

On the women's portion of the event the Hatters performed well in the WV8+ against a more novice crew from Embry-Riddle winning by nearly a 2minute margin.  The Hatter B boat also finished ahead of ERAU by 51 seconds. 

“This was a solid row for the A boat from Stetson and I think a good confidence booster from the B boat as well,” said Wilson. 

The Women's four's races were much closer and Embry- Riddle did a nice job handling the rougher water and edged out the Hatters by less than a second in the N4+ and by 4 seconds in the V4+. 

“We obviously have a lot of work to do and we need to buckle down in the rough water at practice,” said Wilson.

The Hatters will have a short time for improvements as both the men and women will face High Point University on Saturday morning at 8am on Lake Beresford.  If you would like to visit the site or watch racing please travel to the Stetson Rowing site at 2636 Alhambra Ave, DeLand.