Pennsauken Township, N.J. - The Drake University rowing team travels to New Jersey this Sunday, May 16 for the 2021 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship. The MAAC Championships return after being cancelled in 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 MAAC championship's heats and finals will be streamed on ESPN3 (
morning and
afternoon). This will mark the third time in conference history that the championships will be streamed live and first on an ESPN digital platform.
"We have had really good last few weeks of practice," said Drake head coach
Charlie DiSilvestro. "Always stressful with finals week coming the week of conference but they did a great job focusing on classes and still getting great practices in. Academics is always first and they and I all feel good were ended and we're all excited to now focus on racing."
The 2021 MAAC championship will be contested on a 2,000-meter course on the Cooper River in the Cooper River Park. Drake will compete against eight conference opponents (Iona withdrew) in a format that includes three races (Varsity 8+, 2nd Varsity 8+ and Varsity 4+) with heats and finals for each with the top three boats in each initial heat advancing to the grand final while the other boats move to petite grand finals.
The school with the highest point total from the results of all the races will be crowned conference champion. The winner of the MAAC Championships will earn the conference's automatic berth to the 2021 NCAA Championship May 28-June 1 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Fla.
The team will depart Des Moines Friday and have an opportunity to set up at Cooper Park Friday night. They will get chance to sleep in Saturday before having a practice session on the race course later that day.
"After a good rest Friday and Saturday, we're excited to get them out on the water for a nice practice session," DiSilvestro said. "We're the four seed in both of the eight races and the five in the four race. Those are good starting points but we obviously want to improve on those. The first goal is making the grand finals Sunday morning and then go chase medals in the afternoon. I'm very excited for our team as this will be the first experience racing conference for most of them."
