April 3, 2004
San Diego, Calif. – The Notre Dame varsity eight boat, ranked 20th nationally, earned a spot in Sunday’s Jessop-Whittier Cup final of the San Crew Classic, while the second varsity eight boat will row in tomorrow’s Petite Final.
The crew of Maureen Gibbons (cox), Natalie Ladine, Alice Bartek, Meghan Boyle, Rachel Polinski, Melissa Felker, Katie Chenoweth, Danielle Protasewich and Jacqueline Hazen finished tied for third with Southern California, ranked 11th in the nation, in their heat as the two boats crossed the finish line in 6:39.69. Tennessee, ranked 14th, won the heat with a time of 6:38.15, followed by No. 12 Washington State in 6:39.19.
The Washington boat, ranked 10th, won the second heat in 6:35.8, followed by No. 2 California (6:37.40) and Wisconsin (6:42.30).
Sunday’s final will feature, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Washington State, Southern California and Notre Dame.
“Our varsity eight rowed an exceptional race,” head coach Martin Stone said. “That’s probably as tight of a four-boat race that you can have. We’re extremely pleased to be rowing in tomorrow’s final. We’ll make some adjustments for Sunday’s race to help us pick up speed, but overall we are just hoping to go and race in the same manner as we did today.”
The second varsity eight boat of Kacy McCaffrey (cox), Katie Sedun, Kathleen Welsh, Elizabeth Specht, Jenna Redgate, Jessica Guzik, Andrea Doud, Ashley St. Pierre and Megan Sanders finished third with a time of 7:08.99, behind California (6:51.19) and Southern California (6:57.89). The Irish crew just missed qualifying for tomorrow’s championship face in that division, but will compete in the Petite Final.
“This was by far the second varsity eight’s best race of the season,” Stone said. “We just missed qualifying for tomorrow’s final, but we definitely showed great improvement from the race a week ago. Overall, we are very pleased and look forward to having a good race tomorrow.”