Team earns pair of victories against regional opposition

There would be no repeat performance from last week for the IU rowing team at the Indiana Invitational on Sunday.

After giving up a lead in the final 500 meters against Clemson last week, the first Varsity 8 stayed ahead of Notre Dame to capture first place at the Indiana Invitational at Eagle Creek Reservoir in Indianapolis.

The women finished with a time of 6:25.60, 2.10 seconds faster than rival
Notre Dame. Louisville and Purdue finished third and fourth, respectively, to round out the competition.

“Anytime you can say you’re the ‘best in the state’ is great,” IU Coach Steve
Peterson said.

“That’s what it comes down to. Notre Dame, Louisville and Purdue are all quality opponents. I think that alone is important. When you can sit there and look at the in-state rivalries we have with the other schools and say that we won them this year, that’s just a huge thing for us.”

In the most recent NCAA rankings, Notre Dame received 11 votes, just shy of being ranked within the top 20. IU received two votes.

“It means so much to me to come out on top against the other Indiana schools’ rowing programs,” senior Alex Burkle said. “We walk away from this weekend knowing that we are the fastest boat in the state, and that even though we did not have the best race, we were still able to dig down and come out on top.”

The second Varsity 8 took second place, finishing 7.34 seconds behind Notre Dame.

The first Varsity 4 and second Varsity 4 each finished in second place behind Notre Dame.

Purdue did not compete in the first Varsity 4, and Louisville did not compete in the second Varsity 4.

Peterson remained pleased with how his team responded after implementing changes after returning from its race in South Carolina this past week.

“I think the big thing the athletes have done as we move through the season, as we refine our race plan a little bit more, they get better at executing the different aspects of those, whether it’s the start or the sprint or middle part of the race, they’re just getting better at doing that,” Peterson said.

Burkle said she was also pleased with the team’s killer instinct as the Varsity 8 inched closer to the finish line.

“In Clemson, I think we got frantic when they started to catch up to us,” Burkle said. “This weekend, we responded better.”

“We came to win, and we rowed like there was no question we were going to come out on top.”

Eagle Creek Reservoir is also the site where the Big Ten Championships will
occur in May.

It’s one of the reasons Peterson said he enjoys racing there early in the season and believes it might pay off for the team down the road.

“Having an opportunity to race at the site where you have your conference championship is always an advantage,” Peterson said.

“There’s not a lot to what we would call home course race advantage, but every course does have its little peculiarities. So to get to go through sort of a dry run, if you want to call it that, is helpful as far as calming the nerves and excitement when it comes to the conference championship.”