After the Gophers’ last event, the Wisconsin Double Dual, was cancelled due to weather, the team went south for warmer weather this week where they finished in the middle of the pack.
The Minnesota women’s rowing team claimed a 10th place, 71-point finish at the Clemson Invitational in Clemson, South Carolina out of 21 total teams. Ohio State took first with 130 points overall.
“This was a really tight race weekend for the team,” head coach Wendy Davis said. “There was almost no separation between our boats and the other team’s boats. Overall, just a very valuable weekend for our team.”
Minnesota raced four boats on Lake Hartwell this Saturday, consisting of the first varsity eight, second varsity eight, first varsity four and the novice boat.
Minnesota’s first varsity eight featured rowers Anna Stockstad, Kortney Luedloff, Bee Lovick, Rylie Wargo, Lauren Miller, Allison Sterneman, Addie Morris, Lauren Burrows-Cheng and Sara Nelson. They collected two fourth place finishes in the qualifying heats and claimed a sixth place finish with a time of 6:26.16 in the final.
“Overall, this was a really good chance to see a lot of teams and experience them and just to see where we stack up,” Luedloff said. “With all the training that we have done thus far and all the racing, it really helps us figure out where we are at.”
The Gophers’ second varsity eight boat claimed a third place finish in the qualifying heat. They then finished second place with a time of 6:10.78 in the final, compared to first place Syracuse, which had a time of 6:06.83.
The first varsity four boat, consisting of Anna Frazier — the coxswain — Savannah Spahr, Allie Schmidt, Katie VanCamp and Natalie Stratton, claimed a second place finish in Saturday’s second session and qualified for the final where they placed third with a time of 7:15.09.
The final novice boat qualified for the “A” final, finishing in third place with a time of 6:36.78 compared to first place Ohio State who claimed a time of 6:32.35.
Minnesota will prepare to qualify for the Big Ten tournament over the next month, which will take place in Indianapolis on May 13. Last year, the Gophers placed seventh out of eight teams at the conference tournament.
“While we have good focus now, we just need to nail the technical aspects,” junior Elyse Terlion said. “And just keeping that focus to help prepare for qualifying for the tournament.”
