IU Varsity 8 loses 1st meet

Irish eyes are smiling in boathouses across Hoosierland. Notre Dame crews swept all but one race against IU, Purdue, Louisville and Northwestern on Eagle Creek in Indianapolis Saturday. One of the Irish wins included the Indiana State Championship in the Varsity 8 category. \nFinishing second to Notre Dame for the state championship, the IU Varsity 8 recorded its first defeat of the season. Later in the day, IU was topped by Louisville and Notre Dame. This was IU's first regatta consisting of two races in a day. \n"It's disappointing we lost," IU coach Steve Peterson said. "Nobody in the Varsity 8 is happy we didn't win. We came in here with expectations that we'd beat Notre Dame, we'd beat Louisville. We didn't do that."\nIU was off to its best start ever, 7-0, heading into the regatta. Notre Dame coach Martin Stone had been watching IU's progress, after finishing behind the Hoosiers at the Head of the Elk last fall.\n"I was very, very concerned," Stone said. "I knew Indiana has a lot of speed this year. I was scared."\nBut against a bright blue April sky, Irish crews exploded off the line, forcing other boats to catch them instead of rowing their own races. When a crew's bow ball neared, Notre Dame sustained its rhythm, hammering the final 500-meter sprint.\nNotre Dame's powerful starts ensued from the Hoosiers' own successful race strategy this season. \n"We knew IU gets off the line quickly, so that's what we were trying to do," Notre Dame Varsity 8 seven seat Katie Chenoweth said. \nPeterson pointed to the starts when contrasting the Varsity 8's races against Notre Dame. Peterson said his top crew had the "starting sequence perfected, got it really clean and efficient, but they weren't pulling as hard as they needed to be." \nThe IU Varsity 8 adjusted its start and improved in its second tilt, crossing the line nearly two seconds closer to Notre Dame. \nPeterson said the changes implemented Saturday are effective for the season and his "big focus" now is the final segment of the 2,000-meter race. He will develop a "concrete sprint" that involves more than "eight rowers in the boat pulling harder" and includes "different little tricks to get more speed out of them."\nIU's second Varsity 8 finished second to Notre Dame in its morning contest and third, behind Louisville and Notre Dame, in the afternoon. The Varsity 4 placed third and fourth in their two races, while the second Varsity 4 grabbed a second and third. The Novice 8 recorded its first win, over Louisville, in a third-place finish, after taking a third earlier in the day. \nIU is taking the two losses to heart and knows what it takes to be successful in the challenging conference play that begins this week. \n"We understand that to be champions we have to move from failure to failure with enthusiasm," said Varsity 8 coxswain Betsy Hibbard. "Getting down after losing doesn't make a champion. I'd rather lose today than to get into the Big Tens and panic or freak out."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Bill Meehan at wmeehan@indiana.edu.