Navy Women Look to Record New Bests at Eastern Sprints

Championship to be held Sunday

	Navy Women's Crew

May 11, 2006

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - One year after setting a number of school-best marks at the 2005 Eastern Sprints Championship, the Navy women's crew team will attempt to better those standards when this year's edition of the championship is held Sunday on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.

The Mids advanced each of their five boats to the petite finals at the '05 championship, marking just the second time in school history Navy's fleet all qualified for the final. In addition, Navy's varsity boat placed a school-best 10th in its race and the second varsity entry tied a program high by placing ninth.

The Mids are seeded 10th in this year's novice division and will race in the first trial heat of the day at 8 a.m. Navy will face top-seeded Princeton, sixth-seeded Cornell, seventh-seeded Syracuse and 13th-seeded Boston College in the heat.

Slated to take to the water next for the Mids will be the second varsity boat at 8:30 a.m. Navy received the No. 7 seed in the division and will square off against No. 1 Brown, No. 6 Northeastern, No. 12 Cornell and No. 13 Boston College in its heat.

Navy's varsity boat is slated to race in the 9:30 a.m. heat, the third heat of three for the league's top boats. In addition to the No. 10 Mids, other boats in the heat include No. 3 Yale, No. 4 Dartmouth, No. 9 George Washington, No. 15 Penn and No. 16 Boston College.

Rounding out the boats competing during the morning trial heats for the Mids will be Navy's third varsity boat which will race at 10:10 a.m. The No. 8 Navy entry will face No. 2 Brown, No. 5 Boston University, No. 11 Georgetown and No. 14 Boston College in the heat.

The first and second place boats in each trial heat advance to the event's grand final, the third and fourth-place teams qualify for the petite final while the fifth and sixth-place teams move on to the third-level final.

The 1:40 p.m. second novice race, which was not seeded and consists of only a final, features Navy, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and Radcliffe.

"Our first goal in the varsity race is to advance to the grand final," said Navy head coach Mike Hughes. "That's something we haven't accomplished before, but we will have to beat some of the top boats in the country in our trial heat to do so. If that doesn't happen, we want to make a run at winning the petite final, also something we have not accomplished before."

Trial Heats (seeding)
(1st & 2nd in each heat to Grand Final; 3rd & 4th to Petite Final; 5th & 6th to Third Level Final
Novice Eight, heat 1 of 3, 8 a.m. -- Princeton (1), Cornell (6), Syracuse (7), Navy (12), Boston Univ. (13)
Second Varsity Eight, heat 1 of 3, 8:30 a.m. -- Brown (1), Northeastern (6), Navy (7), Cornell (12), Boston College (13)
First Varsity Eight, heat 3 of 3, 9:30 a.m. -- Yale (3), Dartmouth (4), George Washington (9), Navy (10), Penn (15), Boston College (16)
Third Varsity Four, heat 2 of 3, 10:10 a.m. -- Brown (2), Boston Univ. (5), Navy (8), Georgetown (11), Boston College (14)

Finals
Second Novice Eight, Grand Final, 1:40 p.m. -- Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Navy, Radcliffe
Third Varsity Four -- 3rd Level Final, 2:55 p.m.; Petite Final, 3:05 p.m.; Grand Final, 3:15 p.m.
Novice Eight -- 3rd Level Final, 3:30 p.m.; Petite Final, 3:40 p.m.; Grand Final, 3:50 p.m.
Second Varsity Eight -- 3rd Level Final, 4:05 p.m.; Petite Final, 4:15 p.m.; Grand Final, 4:25 p.m.
First Varsity Eight -- 3rd Level Final, 4:40 p.m.; Petite Final, 4:50 p.m.; Grand Final, 5 p.m.

2005 Navy Results
First Varsity -- 10th of 17
Second Varsity -- 9th of 15
Third Varsity -- 10th of 16
First Novice -- 12th of 15
Second Novice -- did not compete
Team Points -- 10th of 17

May 9 Eastern Sprints League Rankings (last week)
Navy Women's Team
1V -- 10th (10th); 2V -- 7th (7th); 3V -- 8th (8th); 1N -- 12th (12th)