Clemson Advances Three Boats to Grand Finals at Cooper Sprints

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — After a whirlwind trip to New Jersey for the Cooper Sprints, Clemson returns home with three grand final appearances and one petite final appearance.  The Tigers competed against teams across seven different conferences including ACC teams Boston College, Duke and North Carolina.

The first varsity eight was the first boat to advance to the grand finals after placing second in their heat with a time of 6:52.18.  Kate Hadley’s crew came in behind Rutgers, but ahead of Kansas, Bucknell and West Virginia. The second varsity eight, coxed by Erin Murphy, finished their heat in second-place with a 6:53.27, the second-fastest time across all heats.  Katie Herbolsheimer’s first varsity four finished second in their heat to Navy with a 7:45.68.  The third varsity eight, coxed by Rebekah Stein, wrapped up the heats by finishing fifth with a time of 7:24.92.

In the finals, Clemson captured 6th overall in the first varsity eight, 5th overall in the second varsity eight and first varsity and 8th overall in the third varsity eight.

The Tigers return to action in two weeks when they travel to Florida for the Sunshine State Invitational on April 5-6.

Full results here.

THOUGHTS FROM HC STEPHEN FRAZIER WONG

We were happy to put 3 of 4 boats into the Grand Finals as it is great practice for the championship style races that we’ll face for the rest of the season. Performing in a must-win, survive and advance situation is something to be celebrated.

I am proud of our team for taking care of business in the the first round of racing; we can’t score unless we put boats into the medal round and we did just that.

In the second round of racing I could have done a better job of focusing the excitement from the heats so that the team wasn’t fixated on winning the finals, but simply performing to the level of their training.  This is a passionate, gritty group of fighters and I think we were a bit exuberant in the finals. We fought like hell, but were throwing wild haymakers at the start instead of targeted power punches so we struggled to find our speed and rhythm.  However, I would much rather have a team make mistakes born from an abundance of enthusiasm. I’ll make sure to emphasize the balance between high energy and smart racing so that we create a focused intensity as we prepare to head to Florida in two weeks.

LINEUPS

1v8+

C: Kate Hadley; 8: Aliute Udoka; 7: Kaley Wojciechowski; 6: Makenna Farr; 5: Isla McRae; 4: Elise Sum; 3: Maura Chozick; 2: Bella Beckler; 1: Cate Schrieber

2V8+

C: Erin Murphy; 8: Julia Meredith; 7: Hannah Hayes; 6: Becca Pulsifer; 5: Meghan McLean; 4: Jasmine Lewis; 3: Bridget Kane; 2: Chloe O’Brien; 1: Katie Konieczny.

1V4+

C: Katie Herbolsheimer; 4: Emily Ash; 3: Caroline “Brooke” Kranz; 2: Auburn Dantice; 1: Pepper Kolman.

3V8+

C: Rebekah Stein; 8: Isabella Dudley; 7: Rachel Knapp; 6: Auiry Tinch; 5: Hannah Niedojadlo; 4: Sam Palmer; 3: Lexi Thrush; 2: Summer Ratley; 1: Sydney Seeger.

Raceday photos

CLT ✈ PHL

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