Texas Rowing Takes Second Conference Championship In Two Weeks
Two weeks after winning their third straight Big 12 Rowing Championship, the University of Texas rowing team also took home top honors at the second annual Conference USA Championship over the weekend. The rowing team bested seven competitors in sweeping all three championship races.
The team is ranked 15th in the country, the highest ranking it has achieved since 2005. The last time it was ranked was at 19th in 2008.
The women finished with a score of 48, six points clear of second place Tennessee.
Texas’ first varsity finished with a time of 6:28.8, edging out Tennessee (6:29.26) by less than a second.
The race was far closer than the first varsity eight race at the Big 12 Championship, which Texas won handily with a time of 6:47.7, more than 10 seconds ahead of second-place Oklahoma. The Longhorns’ second varsity eight was also pushed harder, but finished almost five seconds clear of runner-up Tennessee, at 6:38.80.
The last event, the first varsity four, was a close race to the finish, but the Texas foursome’s time of 7:17.20 was enough to hold off Tennessee at 7:19.18.
Texas seniors Jennifer VanderMaarel, Tajana Lovric, Sally Tunell, and Jelena Zunic were selected for the 15-member All-Conference USA team. VanderMaarel also took home C-USA Rowing Athlete of the Year honors.
In addition, freshman Sydney Boyes was named C-USA Newcomer of the Year, while Coach Carie Graves was named C-USA Coach of the Year.
Conference USA has just three full-time members that sponsor women’s rowing: SMU, Tulsa, and UCF. Six other programs, including Texas, serve as affiliate members in the league.
Texas will learn its NCAA fate tomorrow when the field for the NCAA Rowing Championship is announced.
Photo courtesy Conference USA
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