March 28, 2012
THIS WEEK:The University of Iowa women’s rowing team will travel to San Diego, Calif., to participate in the 39th San Diego Crew Classic. The Hawkeyes will compete in the varsity 8 and 2nd varsity 8. Fans can watch the Hawkeyes race by visiting, http://crewclassic.org/video/ for live video.
THE RACE: The competition will take place on the sun-kissed water of Mission Bay at Crown Point Shores in San Diego, Calif. The boats will start near Sea World with the course running north along Mission Bay for 2,000 meters, finishing at Crown Points Shores Park. Races will begin at approximately 9:30 a.m. (CT) both Saturday and Sunday.
There are approximately 4,000 athletes from over 100 clubs, universities and colleges from across the United States, Canada and Mexico participating in this premier rowing event.
QUOTING KOWAL: “I always look forward to bringing the team to this race. It’s just a really fun race to participate in, the energy is high and there is a lot of fast races. There will be some good, fast competition.”
EVENT INFORMATION: The event schedule is available online at crewclassic.org/schedule.html and will be updated from now through Sunday, April 1, 2012. For more information, visit http://www.crewclassic.org/press_coverage.html.
LIVE RESULTS: Results can be found at http://www.crewclassic.org/results/2012_schedule.html and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/crewclassic.
FOLLOW THE HAWKEYES: Become fans of the official Iowa rowing page by going to http://on.fb.me/ySA6K6 to follow the Hawkeyes on Facebook. Fans can also follow the black and gold on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/iowarowing.
LAST EVENT: Iowa opened up the spring season on March 17 against Clemson, Indiana, Syracuse, Boston University, Purdue and Marist. The Hawkeyes had crews in the Varsity 8, 2nd Varsity 8, Varsity 4, Novice 8 and 2nd Novice 8 events. Iowa collected victories in the 2nd varsity 8 and 2nd novice 8.
The 2nd varsity 8 boat of Laurel Johnson, Chloe Zwiacher, Beth Baustian, Brianna Achs, Sarah Radke, Emily Karpinski, Hannah Klotz, Rachel Crosley and Erin Czupil put together a solid race and crossed the finish line with a time of 6:52.81. Iowa started behind Clemson (6:53.31), who finished 13th in the country last season, but stayed strong throughout the entire race and was able to pull ahead and win the event.
The 2nd novice 8 boat claimed Iowa’s second victory of the day. Destinee Gwee, Sarah Kohnke, Natalie Nease, Jenny Schwickerath, Paige Rankin, Sarah Rhoads, Melissa Dawkins, Sydney Skuodas and Anna Bruns handled the field with a winning time of 7:31.10. Clemson was the closest competition to the Hawkeyes and finished just over seven seconds behind Iowa at 7:38.29. Indiana placed third in the event (7:43.14).
HOME OF THE HAWKEYES: The P. Sue Beckwith, M.D., Boathouse was dedicated September 18, 2009. The state of the art facility is located within the city of Iowa City’s Terrell Mill Park, next to the Iowa River.
HEAD COACH:Mandi Kowal is in her 18th 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.