Oct. 25, 2005
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THIS WEEK: The University of Iowa rowing team will host the 17th annual Head of the Iowa Regatta. Competition will be held Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.
THE RACE: This 2.5 mile downstream race on the Iowa River starts in City Park and finishes near the Iowa Memorial Union on the University of Iowa campus. The races will be in a head race format. Teams will start the race one after another, with a 15 second break between each entry. The team that completes the course in the best time wins.
THE COMPETITION: Over 25 different rowing squads will be competing at the Head of the Iowa, with a mix of club and collegiate teams. The Hawkeyes will race against Big Ten teams Wisconsin and Minnesota, which finished third and fifth last year in the conference, respectively.
HAWKEYE ROWERS: Both novice and varsity Hawkeyes will be rowing this weekend. Iowa is scheduled to compete in the Open 2-, Open 4+, Novice 8+ and Open 8+.
LAST TIME OUT: On October 23, the varsity Hawkeye rowers took to the water in Boston, MA at the Head of the Charles Regatta. Iowa had one boat in competition in the Championship 8+. The Hawkeye boat finished 17th with a time of 17:49. Because there were club teams competing also, this was 14th place among the collegiate squads.
HEAD COACH: Mandi Kowal is in her 12th year as head coach of the Hawkeyes. In the 1997 and 1998 NCAA Rowing Championships, she coached the Varsity 4+ teams to fourth and eighth-places finishes, respectively. Kowal began her rowing career at the University of Wisconsin in 1981. She was a two-time rowing World Champion in the Women’s Lightweight 4- (1986-1987). She was named Female Athlete of the Year in 1987 by the US Rowing Association and was inducted into the United States Rowing Hall of Fame in 1997.
QUOTING COACH KOWAL: “We are really looking forward to hosting the Head of the Iowa. It’s such an electric atmosphere at City Park. Our team loves competing at home and always seems to perform well here.”