By Chris Judd, News Correspondent
The Northeastern men’s rowing team won the Pennsylvania Invitational regatta with a perfect 12-0 race record on March 23 at Cooper River in Camden, N.J. The Huskies swept Georgetown University, George Mason University and the University of Pennsylvania in their season opener this weekend.
The Huskies won the Burk Cup as their varsity eight team beat Penn by three seconds with a 5:46.1 race finish. This was their closest race of the tournament, with a majority of the races decided by more than 10 seconds.
“The team performed well and the times were fast for March,” coach John Pojednic said in an email. “It is very early in our preparations and we knew going into the weekend that we do not yet know how to best position our athletes within the crews.
For example, our second varsity posted a faster time than our first varsity in the final race of the weekend. This is a good thing because it suggests that, despite winning all of our races, we can gain speed by making personnel adjustments in addition to the standard expectation that we will get faster through continued training.”
The second varsity eight finished all of their races around 5:54, with its best time being exactly 5:44.
The third varsity eight’s best time was 6:00.6 and the varsity four’s best time was 6:59.6.
This was the last time before the EARC Sprints Championship that the rowing team faces three opponents in just one weekend.
“It was difficult to race three times in two days because rowing is a grueling sport,” Pojednic said. “With that said, this is normal and the team trains very hard all year to be prepared for this. Our national championship format is three 2000 meter races in 48 hours so the Pennsylvania Invitational is a great regatta when it comes to putting teams through a challenging format.”
The men’s rowing team will next face Boston University in the Arlett Cup on April 13 on the Charles River out of the Henderson Boathouse. Students can view races from the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, the halfway point of the course.
The women’s rowing team was set to race in the Beanpot while the men competed at the Pennsylvania Invitational, but it was postponed to April 28 due to inclement weather. With one competition already under its belt with a win March 9 in Orlando, Fla. at the University of Central Florida, the team will compete in the PAC-12 Challenge this weekend against Oregon State University, Stanford University and the University of California.
