April 1 and 2 saw the Hatters of Stetson compete in the Florida Intercollegiate Association Regatta at the Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota Florida, where they competed against thirteen other colleges and universities from across Florida as well as Georgia and Oklahoma.
The weekend's racing started with heats for some of the entries in which all of the Hatter boats advanced to the Saturday finals. Saturday began with a strong south wind and a threatening forecast for afternoon thunderstorms so the race officials decided to push the schedule forward and try to compress the racing to allow everyone to compete.
The day of racing began with the Varsity 8+ which had 6 freshman rowers in the line-up raced a very strong field including three of the faster DII V8+s in the country including Barry University. The Women raced very strong and had a good but not suburb race and finished 5th ahead of Georgia Tech, Rollins and U of Florida. The Second Varsity 8+ from Stetson could have raced in the Freshman 8+ event but due to the team racing the NCAA events opted for the all freshman line-up racing in the 2V8+ race where they finished 3rd out of four behind University of Central Oklahoma and FIT.
The small boats came next in the compressed schedule and the women's pair of Emmie Wenzell and Emily Tivy took to the wind and waves and did an amazing job of racing a very fast Georgia Tech pair and finished third in a time of 8:43 only 6 seconds behind a solid Rollins pair. In the Women's singles Stetson scullers Amelia Ornato and Carly Swanson cruised to a 1-2 finish in a full field of 6 boats. “I am so proud of these young ladies, exclaims Coach Mark Wilson, they are just gutsy competitors and both were nervous going out in the waves and wind but once on the race course just did a great job.” Ornato edged Swanson for the win by 5 seconds and Swanson was ahead of third place by 24 seconds. Certainly a solid finish for both scullers.
Unfortunately the rest of the schedule was cancelled due to weather. The races that did not compete included the Varsity 4+, Varsity 4+B and the two Novice 4+'s. The Hatter Novice 4+A boat had the fastest time during the heats by over 30 seconds and were favored to win that event.
The Hatters now have one weekend off from racing and will be racing next at the Kerr Cup in Philadelphia on April 16th.
Full results can be found at www.Row2k.com.
LINEUPS
WV8+
C – Katie Shilling
Stroke – Olivia Valiante
7 – Emily Tivy
6 – Kaley Concannon
5 – Mary Wenzell
4 – Georgina Ashley
3 – Emma Griffith
2 – Amelia Ornato
Bow – Laurie Scott
W2V8+ (JV)
C – Kali Todd
Stroke – Catherine Keve
7 – Riley McGovern
6 – Alexandra Overdijking
5 – Michelle Price
4 – Abby Hamilton
3 – Carly Swanson
2 – Catie Hessler
Bow – Alessandra Clemente
WV4+
C – Shilling
Stroke – Valiante
3 – Wenzell
2 – Ashley
Bow - Valiante
WF/N4+ (A)
C – Erica McCaughey
Stroke – Keve
3 – Tivy
2 – Concannon
Bow – McGovern
WF/N4+ (B)
C – Swanson
Stroke – Hamilton
3 – Price
2 – Griffith
Bow - Clemente
W 'B' V4+
C – Todd
Stroke – Hessler
3 – Chrissy Mayer
2 – Brianna Lopez
Bow – Kenna McFall
WV2-
Stroke – Wenzell
Bow – Tivy
W1x (A)
Ornato
W1x (B)
Swanson
