WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – The Drake Bulldogs rowing team travels to the 2015 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship this Sunday, May 17 vying for its second MAAC title in program history. Visit the MAAC championship central page for teams, schedules and more.
The Bulldogs will compete against eight fellow MAAC members on Lake Mercer in Mercer County Park with the winner guaranteed a berth in the 2015 NCAA Rowing Championship held May 29-31 in Gold River, Calif.
Sunday's format includes three races (Varsity 8, 2nd Varsity 8 and Varsity 4) with heats and finals and the top three boats in each initial heat advancing to the grand final while the others move to petite finals. The school with the highest point total from the results of the three races will be the conference champion.
“We have been emphasizing that the conference championship is all about being ready to perform at a high level right away,” said head coach Charlie DiSilvestro. “Our conference is deep and tough with quality teams. When the first oar drops in the water you have to be ready because all the races are high-consequences races. We have worked hard at learning to fight through mistakes and being ready to push through those because mistakes will happen but you have to be able to fight through those or you end up in the petite finals.”
The Bulldogs had a busy spring season traveling to regattas all over the Midwest and several weeks of winter and spring break training down south leading up to this key weekend. The team was able to take advantage of a mild, Iowa winter to get out on the water earlier than usual in Des Moines and all of their scheduled regattas were able to take place with little or no weather issues.
“These last few weeks since Creighton have been a balancing act between practice time and academics (Drake is wrapping up its spring semester this week),” commented DiSilvestro on his team's preparation for the conference championship. “Finals are concluding so we have stressed the importance of finishing strong in the classroom and then putting all their focus on rowing once their finals are over. I'm confident that all three boats will have great races from the heats through the grand finals.”
Drake, who has been an associate member of the MAAC since 2010, won the league title in 2012 in thrilling fashion over Marist by edging the Red Foxes for first place in the varsity 8 race to finish two points ahead in the final standings. Marist came back and claimed the 2013 MAAC title while Jacksonville took home the title last year. Drake finished fourth and sixth, respectively, at the previous two MAAC Championships.
