FARMER CITY, Ill. – The Drake University rowing team continues its spring racing season Saturday at the sixth annual Illinois Collegiate Rowing Invitational hosted by the University of Illinois rowing clubs. The Bulldogs are making their first trip to the regatta, which will be contested on a 2,000-meter course on Clinton Lake.
 
Drake will race against several Illinois clubs, including the host, Illini, DePaul and University of Chicago as well as clubs from Marquette and St. Thomas. The Bulldogs will have several boats competing, including four varsity 4s, one pair, one varsity 8 and one 2^nd varsity 8. The varsity 4 race will feature a preliminary race in the morning followed by a grand or petite final in the afternoon. The others races will just be finals.
 
Drake is looking to improve on its strong showing against Illinois and Purdue last weekend in West Lafayette, Ind. The team's trip to Indiana was a last-minute decision due to the cancellation of their originally scheduled race for that weekend, the Lubbers Cup, in Michigan due to inclement weather.
 
"It is going to be nice having a regatta with weather not factoring after our last two (Creighton and Purdue) were," said head coach Charlie DiSilvestro. "Saturday, we are going to go up against some familiar teams and some we haven't seen in quite some time. We need to continue to put together two good races back-to-back and race consistently. We had a really good weekend in Indiana and now we need back that up and take it to this weekend."
 
Following Saturday's race, Drake travels to Buffalo, N.Y. for the Black Rock Cup, where it will compete against fellow Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference members, host Canisius College and Robert Morris, on April 29.
 
ICRI Race Schedule
Saturday Morning
8:46 a.m. – Varsity 4 B (B, C, D boats) (Final)
8:54 a.m. – Varsity 4
10:08 a.m. – 2^nd Varsity 8 (Final)
11 a.m. – Pairs (Final)
Saturday Afternoon
TBD – Varsity 4 Petite/Grand Finals
3:35 p.m. – Varsity 8 (Final)
 
Drake Tentative Lineups for ICRI
V8- Rambhia (cox), Rebischke, Baumeister, Konopacki, Abrams, Thacker, Rundquist, Packer, Frantik
2V8 - Killian (cox), McNeely, Gowans, Shipley J., Coffman., Hunter, Smith, Janes, Masterson
V4 A - Prien (Cox), Bascio, Rimes, Dahlstrom, Finnnell
V4 B – Riester (cox), Rundquist, Peterson, Stock, Nikolic
V4 C – Rambhia (cox), McNeely, Gowans, Hunter, Smith
V4 D – Killian (cox), Shipley, Coffman, Janes, Masterson
2x – Abrams, Frantik