Heavyweight Men Sprints Preview
MAY 10, 2004
On Saturday, May 15, the Georgetown Heavyweight men will travel to Worcester for Sunday's Eastern Sprints. This marks the second appearance for the heavyweights at these championships after making the move up from the Champion/Avaya/ECAC championship level in 2003. The Hoyas hope to improve on its finishes from last year where they finished 14th, 13th and 16th in the varsity, second varsity and first frosh events respectively.
In the varsity eight event, Georgetown is coming off a victory in its Duel with George Washington and is seeded 14th again this year. Based on their seeding, the Hoyas will face stiff competition in their heat in 2 seed Princeton, 5 seed Northeastern, 8 seed Brown, 11 seed Boston University, and 17 seed Holy Cross who will row as host on Worcester's Lake Quinsigamond. Only two crews move onto the Grand Final and the next two to the Petite Final. The Hoyas will need to upset one crew for a place in the petite final and are looking at Brown and Boston University as possible targets. All crews know that the seeding mean little this year as Northeastern coach Jon Pojednic noted at the recent 2004 Sprints Luncheon in Boston. Commenting on the depth of the Sprints field, Pojednic suggested that “it doesn’t matter whether you’re ranked third or tenth at this point. It will be a very close race for the bronze. From Princeton, to Georgetown, to Navy, to Wisconsin, to Rutgers, to Syracuse, to Penn, ... all the crews have shown speed over the course of the year.”
In the second varsity eight, the Hoyas are also seeded 14th and hoping to improve on its seeding as the J.V. eight did last year. The Hoyas will face familiar competition in their heat with a chance to exact some revenge on three crews it has already seen this year in 2 seed Cornell, 5 seed Navy, 8 seed Rutgers, and will also come up against 11 seed Dartmouth who it will be looking to knock off for a spot in the petite final.
Lastly, the highest seeded Georgetown boat is the first freshman eight
with the 11th seed. The young Hoyas have already knocked off Sprints rivals
Cornell and Rutgers this year. After a tough week of seat racing, the
freshman will be ready to take down some more rowing powers facing 2 seed
Brown, 5 seed Penn, 8 seed Wisconsin, and 14 seed Columbia. Positioned
by seedings for a spot in the petite final, the crew knows they must race
well in order to fight off Columbia for the spot in the petite but at
the same time look to upset the three other higher ranked crews. The most
interesting race for the Hoyas in this heat is with 8th seeded Wisconsin.
This matchup will be with a squad that current frosh coach Greg Myhr coached
for eight years prior to coming to the Hilltop; you can be sure that his
boys will want to pull it out for their coach.
