No. 2 Women’s Rowing Completes Day One of NCAA II Championship

5/31/2024 7:19:00 PM | By: Kyrin Mayfield

Results
BETHEL, Ohio - The No. 2 Embry-Riddle women's rowing team experienced a couple of tough breaks to begin the NCAA II National Championship at Harsha Lake on Friday. The Eagles' Eight boat narrowly missed securing a spot in the Grand Final on multiple occasions, coming up five tenths of a second short in its heat race. Meanwhile, the Four boat experienced issues in its heat race and struggled in the repechage.

The action began early in the morning with Eights heats. The Eagle shell containing Jolee Paulk (Cox), Shelby Ernst, Sofia Lorenzini, Soleil Edwards, Alexandra Weilert, Aria Moses, Reagan Hurt, Abby Webb, and Kristen Vigna launched out to a three-second lead after the first 500 meters. However, No. 5 Cal Poly Humboldt slowly surged back until the two boats were neck and neck with a quarter of the length to go. In the end, the Lumberjacks edged the Eagles by half a second to win at 7:15.857 with ERAU crossing in a time of 7:16.365.

Up next was the Fours heats. Laurel Grein (Cox), Alexandria Fife-Winslow, Danielle DelGrippo, Caterina Hart, and Briella Goldenberg crossed the line in third with a mark of 8:44.425. The boat encountered issues with the CoxBox about halfway through the race.

With only the winner advancing directly to the Grand Final, both Blue and Gold boats headed to the repechages later in the day, which were pushed back a few hours due to inclement weather. The top two boats in the repechages earn spots in the Grand Final while the last two are sent to the Petite Final.

First up was the Eights. After narrowly missing a spot in the Grand Final in the heat, the Eagles were once again involved in a tight battle. Embry-Riddle, No. 6 Mercyhurst and No. 3 Central Oklahoma were within two seconds of each other through the first 1,500 meters of the event. However, the Bronchos and the Lakers surged ahead by a couple of ticks to leave ERAU in third (7:09.785) and send the Eagles to the Petite Final.

Then in the Fours, the Eagles lost contact with the top two spots at the midway point and scuffled with No. 1 Western Washington the rest of the way. Embry-Riddle stopped the clock at 8:15.071 for a fourth-place result and a spot in the Petite Final.

The championship concludes on Saturday with both Petite and Grand Final races. Embry-Riddle first takes to the water in the Fours Petite Final at 11 a.m. with the Eights Petite Final to follow at 11:48 a.m.

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