Murray State University Athletics
Racers advance to semifinals at Philly
5/13/2005 5:00:00 AM
Racers head coach Bill McLean was very pleased with the victory, in which MSU beat Kansas by eight-tenths of a second, but knows the competition only gets tougher tomorrow.
"This was a very good start here in Philadelphia," McLean said. "I thought our girls pulled together the whole way, but tomorrow, we've got to lengthen our stroke. Our competition tomorrow in the semifinals is tough. West Virginia is in there, and Long Beach, which was a team that was about 10 seconds faster in their heat than we were in ours."
The Dad Vail Regatta is the largest collegiate regatta in the United States, with more than 100 colleges and universities from the U.S. and Canada participating. The event is held the second Saturday each May in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park.
The Murray State varsity fours consists of crew members Sarah Bullock, Elaine Schaad, Rachel Hopper and Tracy Bogard. The MSU coxswain is Lindsey Flowers.
The Racers blasted from the starting line and stayed ahead of Kansas until the Jayhawks inched ahead with less than 500 meters remaining in the 2,000-meter heat. The two teams were even with 50 meters left when the Racers pulled ahead to win by less than a second. Murray State's time was 7 minutes, 42 seconds.
The Racers advance to the semifinal at 9:41 p.m. Eastern Time Saturday. Murray State will be in Lane 3, with North Park College and Long Beach State on either side of them. The top three teams in each semifinal advance to the final.
