Orangewomen Rowers Advance to NCAA Finals;
5/26/2001 1:15:24 PM | Women's Rowing
The Orangewomen's varsity eight, coxswained by Heather DiLoreto (East Amherst, NY), finished four-tenths of a second behind second-place Princeton and four seconds behind the heat winner Washington. Jillian Kott (McLean, VA) was the stroke and Meredith Kyle (Rochester, NY) was the bow for the Orange boat, which finished in 6:53.9. Last season Syracuse's varsity eight placed ninth, by advancing to the final SU is guaranteed a top-six finish.
Syracuse, Washington and Princeton advance to Saturday's grand final. Southern California won the other semifinal heat, defeating previously unbeaten No. 1 Brown and previously unbeaten No. 2 Michigan. Southern California, Brown and Michigan fill out the finals' pool.
Mercurio and Miller cruised to a nine-second victory, holding the lead for the entire spare race. The spare race is composed of alternates from each team at the NCAA Rowing Championships. Each team that competes at the championship brings two alternates, if they do not compete in the varsity eight, second eight or varsity four the alternates race as a pair in the spares race. Mercurio and Miller crossed the finish line in 8:49.1. There were three heats of spares on Friday.
Agate NCAA Semifinals Heat 2 1. Washington 6:49.9 2. Princeton 6:53.5 3. Syracuse 6:53.9 NCAA Semifinal Heat 1 1. Southern California 6:43.3 2. Michigan 6:45.8 3. Brown 6:52.1 Spares Heat 1 1. Syracuse 8:49.1 2. Michigan 8:58.8 3. Princeton 9:11.3
