Navy Places Third in Women's Crew Varsity Final at Murphy Cup

Program combines to win four trial heats

	Navy women's crew

March 29, 2008

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Navy women's rowing team saw its varsity boat place third in the championship final of the Murphy Cup, held Saturday on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

The Mids advanced to the grand final thanks to their first-place finish in the trial heat, but in the final they finished 12.4 seconds in back of regatta-champion Bucknell. The Bison won the title in a time of 6:36.22, Williams placed second in the race with a clocking of 6:42.86, with Navy following in third place with a time of 6:48.62.

The Navy program saw three of its additional crews also win trial heats on the day, but only the varsity four boat came away with a title. The top finishing novice eight boat for the Mids finished in third place in their final, while the second varsity boat finished in fourth place in their championship race.

"In all, we won four heats today in our first racing of the season, so we were pleased by the way we began the day," said Navy head coach Mike Hughes. "We needed to do a better job of carrying that over into the finals, though. I feel with more water time over the next few weeks we will have the opportunity ahead of us to become a stronger team, which will help us increase our stroke rate to match that of some of the other boats in the field who finished ahead of us. It will take a lot of hard work on our part and nothing is a given, but we have both the ability and the opportunity to improve ourselves a great deal. We just have to realize the effort that will be needed to take advantage of that chance."

Navy will continue its season April 5 when the Mids face George Washington and Boston University on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., for the Playfair Cup.

Varsity Eight
Heats - Navy, 1st of 6 (6:38.41, +5.0 seconds)
Final - Navy, 3rd of 6 (6:48.62, -12.4)

Second Varsity Eight
Heats - Navy, 1st of 5 (7:04.72, +6.8)
Final - Navy, 4th of 6 (7:01.08, -15.4)

Novice Eight
Heats - Navy A, 1st of 5 (7:10.92, +11.5); Navy B, 2nd of 5 (7:04.74, -2.1)
Final - Navy A, 3rd of 6, 7:03.87, -14.7); Navy B, 5th of 6 (7:08.46, -19.3)

Varsity Four
Heats - Navy A, 2nd of 5 (7:48.91, -14.1); Navy B, 1st of 5 (7:32.19, +22.3)
Final - Navy B, 1st of 6 (7:19.83, +6.7)