Murray State's women's rowing team faced Wichita State and Northwestern State yesterday in two separate races in Natchitoches, La. The Racers finished first in four of the five races. MSU claimed first place in the varsity eight and varsity four races against Wichita State, and the varsity eight and novice eight races against Northwestern State.
“The team has greatly improved and has learned much from this first race experience,” said head coach Bill McLean. “We now have a better understanding of where we need to make improvements and what works well.”
Against Wichita State, MSU's varsity eight finished in a time of 7:48.69. Wichita's crew posted a time of 8:27.89, 39.2 seconds behind the Racers. MSU's novice eight competed in the race as well and placed third in a time of 8:47.04.
Murray State's varsity eight crew included Toni Guthrie (coxswain), Anna Brown (stroke), Karen Delaney (seven-seat), Jenna Kirkpatrick (six-seat), Elizabeth Van Lengen (five-seat), Tracy Bogard (four-seat), Stefanie Kozuszek (three-seat), Katelyn Campbell (two-seat) and Erin Sargent (bow).
“We have a really strong group of women,” said Bogard. “This was a great benchmark and we're looking forward to racing again in two weeks.”
The Racers won the varsity four race in a time of 8:49.3. Wichita State was second, 24.55 seconds behind the leader with a time of 9:13.85. The Kansas University club team was third.
MSU varsity four crew consisted of Laura Graham (coxswain), Kelly Anderson (stroke), Kari Weisenfeld, Colleen Rice and Christa Bugg (bow).
The crews faced a 10 mile per hour headwind during the first two races with temperatures around 75 degrees.
In the second group of races, Murray State took first place in two of the three events. In the varsity eight the Racers (7:32.44) beat Northwestern State (8:07.57) by 35.13 seconds.
MSU's varsity eight line-up in this race included Graham (coxswain), Brown (stroke), Delaney, Kirkpatrick, Van Lengen, Bogard, Kozouszek, Campbell and Sargent (bow).
In the varsity four race Murray State (8:49.65) placed second, 14.78 seconds behind first place Northwestern State (8:34.87). Wichita State placed third in a time of 9:23.35.
In the final event, the Racers claimed first place in the novice eight race by posting a time of 8:01.10. Northwestern State was 27.1 seconds behind in a time of 8:28.2.
MSU's novice eight line-up included Wesley Newmaster (coxswain), Lyndsey Staples (stroke), Hannah Shaffer, Mia Walters, Hannah Neely, Kelly Boyer, Jessica Stamper, Ashley Glennon and Anna Newmaster (bow).
The wind died down during the second group of races and the temperature fell to 70 degrees.
The Murray State Rowing team will face Alabama on April 7 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“We have two weeks until Alabama and these races have helped us weed out our faults,” McLean said. “It is going to be really exciting these next few weeks.”
