On Saturday, UCF women's rowing paddled to its eighth state title at the Florida Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship and in the process did something that has never been done in the history of UCF rowing.
With their win over the weekend, the Knights brought the Shirley B. Negaard Trophy back to East Orlando. After winning the state championship, the Knights are currently ranked fifth in the Division I south regional, the first national ranking ever of the UCF rowing program. UCF's varsity eight is also tied for fifth with the University of Texas in the south regional.
Over the weekend in Tampa, the Knights were near the top of all the race categories except one, finishing first in five of the seven races.
Last year's rowing team finished second behind a strong Miami team, but this year the Knights were able to stymie the Hurricanes and finish in first.
In the most important category of the varsity eight competition, the Knights finished first, beating out the University of Miami by 13 seconds. The eight consisted of senior leaders Amy Price and coxswain Lisa Beltran, juniors Kayla Smith, Tanya Kleisler, Melissa Westhoff and Katherine Motes, sophomore Krystina Sarff, and freshmen Caitlin Pauls and Mary Rosser.
These ladies also posted the top time in the preliminary heats on Friday, the first day of competition at the Bypass Canal in Tampa. They continued their great work on Saturday with their first place time of 6 minutes, 26.6 seconds.
The Knights continued their winning ways in the junior varsity category, as well, where they took home the top prize. UCF finished with a time of 6:28.2, a full 17 seconds faster than Miami. The Knights also dominated in the lightweight eight event, where their two teams finished one-two with Jacksonville coming in third nearly 20 seconds behind the Knights' first place squad.
UCF also fared well in both novice eight categories. Junior rowers Laurel Elmore and Katie Fulton, sophomores Jessica Lorne and Katrina Gavette, and freshman Erin Riegel, Megan Kranz, Eleni Roussos and coxswain Jenni Brooks, finished in first place with a time of 6:52.9. Miami finished second again, posting a time of 7:03.11. The second novice eight team also won its event with a victory of nearly 40 seconds over runner-up Tampa.
The Knights' only area of struggle was with the smaller boats. They finished fourth in the varsity four category with a time of 7:42.5, coming in behind Barry, Nova Southeastern and first-place Miami, which clocked a time of 7:22.9. In the varsity four event, the Knights finished third, behind two teams from the University of Miami, with a time of 7:46.9.
UCF rowing Coach Leeanne Crain said her team has "taken over as the fastest boats this year."
The women rowers' next stop is in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to compete in the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship, starting April 16. Crain said, "This is our biggest competition of the regular season."
The Knights are the No. 2 seed, trying to knock off the top seeded Louisville Cardinals, who actually rank below the Knights at No. 6 in the nation.
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