Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
South/Central Regional
Rowers Wrap Up Day One in Knoxville
5/16/2010 10:37:45 AM | Women's Rowing
Varsity 4+ breaks Eagles' last-place slump at Aramark Sprints
Knoxville, Tenn. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University women's rowing team traveled to Knoxville, Tenn. this weekend to compete at the 2010 Aramark Sprints on the waters Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The race, which is the 14th Annual Aramark Sprints, serves as both the South/Central region championships and the Conference USA Championship.
In the women's first varsity 8+, the team of Kate Dirks, Heather Anderson, Brittany Thomas, Caitlin Jones, Janelle Mitchell, Megan Luther, Beatrice Korte, Briana Nesmith and Noel McAuliffe finished sixth in their heat in a time of 7:25.95 behind Duke, Central Florida, Miami (Fla.), Tulsa and Kansas. The Eagles placed 24th.
Brittany Jones, along with Leigh Azkoul, Virginia Zimmerman, Kristen Dunkin, Annabelle Hawkins, Brenda Gerdeman, Rebecca Dudus, Anamarie Esteva and Mary Keener competed in the second varsity 8+ for EMU. This boat, having never finished better than 20th in Eastern's 10-year history, was unable to rewrite history as it finished 22nd with a time of 7:49.84.
In the varsity 4+ boat Kristen Schmidt, Lauren Foley, Michelle Dahnke and Jennifer Shanafelt, made history for the Eagles as they group allowed Eastern its first non-last place finish in the race. Prior to this year, no boat finished better than last, but this group posted a time of 8:40.13 to finish ahead of Southern Methodist University.
The Eagles rowers will take to the water again Sunday as the Aramark Sprints wrap up.
