Varsity 8 earns best record ever with 7-0

Everything is coming up roses for the Hoosiers' young season so far. In tight races with George Washington University on an ungracious Potomac River, the IU women's rowing boat Varsity 8 set a school record of 7-0 and the Varsity 4 boat got off to 1-0 start on Saturday in the nation's capital.\n"It wasn't the prettiest race, but we came away with the 'W,'" said IU coach Steve Peterson. "The water level was really high and the current was flying, with a lot of debris on it."\nThe adverse conditions forced IU to abandon its strategy and search for its cadence the entire race. After falling behind George Washington in the first 500 of the 2,000-meter course, IU gained an open-water lead at the midway point. But the Colonials attacked and caught IU, turning the remainder of the race into an all-out test of skill and will.\nIU outlasted George Washington in the final meters, however, to win by about two seconds in 5 minutes 54.7 seconds -- breaking the school record for best opening to a season, set in 2004 with a 6-0 beginning. The Colonials clocked a 5:56.6 while Georgetown placed third in 6:03.4 and North Carolina fourth in 6:04.3.\n"It came down to whoever got the last stroke in," said senior captain Amanda Walker. "GW kept creeping back. We were trying (to get ahead), but it just wasn't happening."\nWalker said Varsity 8 got knocked off stride by a wake and a gust of wind five strokes into the race and thus struggled to find its tempo.\n"We never got into our rhythm," she said. "We weren't rowing like we usually do."\nPeterson said the race was tighter than it should have been because IU was not in top form in the third 500 meters, when it could have put GW away.\n"When you've got an opponent in a vulnerable situation and you know you can end the race, then do it," he said. "Even if it takes a little extra effort, put them away, be done with it and win the race."\nThe Varsity 4, with only two days of practice in its boat, trailed George Washington at the 1,000-meter mark. But IU adjusted its technique and tallied a 7:32.7 to defeat the Colonials by nearly six seconds and register a victory in its first contest of the season.\n"We lengthened out a bit and I guess it just clicked," said senior captain Annie Lawson. "We worked with the water and got our rhythm together. It had a lot more acceleration."\nIU's second Varsity 8 beat Georgetown to the tape, in 6:40.0, but finished third behind North Carolina and George Washington.\nPeterson, who coached at George Washington for seven years before arriving at IU, was upbeat because the team won -- and learned something that will shape its outlook.\n"It was not the race intensity and level that it has to be when we start going against the Ohio States and Michigans," he said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Bill Meehan at wmeeahn@indiana.edu.