Justin Moore's Race Comments
The race lived up to its name. Both the competition and the elements provided large challenges to the team. Racing in the basin was cancelled immediately after our varsity 8+ race, which saw Radcliffe catch two boat-stopping crabs and waves cresting over the bow of our shell.
Saturday's racing - We felt that we rowed fairly well in the conditions, but we were disappointed that we allowed ourselves to be back off the start. Once we lengthened to our base cadence, we matched Minnesota quite well, but we realized that we had given up too much early and that we allowed them to control the race.
Sunday - The varsity 8+ put together its best combination of start and base cadence of the year, and pressed out to a lead for the first time this season and in my tenure as coach. Because of their early aggression, the crew found itself in the thick of a three-boat battle with Louisville and Minnesota in the middle of the race-course. This is just the type of experience these young women needed leading toward the BIG EAST Championships.
We have felt that our training has been making us faster. I believe that today's race demonstrated that progress. Having lost to Boston University on our spring training trip and in the first week of the regular season, it was great to see the crew able to reverse the margin and win today's contest by a length.
The group fully understands that there is a great deal of work that needs to be done, but it is great to see hard evidence of our training improvements on the race course.
