The Drexel University men’s and women’s crew team participated at the Navy Day Regatta on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia Oct. 13. The teams faced competitors from Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania and the United States Naval Academy. Overall, the Dragons had top five finishes in their respective events.
The Dragons competed in six events: the men’s and women’s collegiate freshmen/novice eight, men’s and women’s collegiate junior varsity eight (generally, the second varsity eights) and the men’s and women’s open/collegiate eight (varsity).
The best performances came from the men’s side as the varsity eight and second varsity eight rowed to second place finishes. The men’s varsity eight raced to second place behind Navy with a time of 12:06.54. Navy took first place with a time of 12:05.22. The Dragons also placed ahead of local rival Saint Joseph’s University by about seven seconds, which is a huge margin for them as St. Joe’s had a very successful season last spring. The men’s second varsity eight also placed behind Navy A by 14.6 seconds but ahead of the Navy B by 1.2 seconds.
There were two third-place finishes by the women’s team from the second varsity eight and the freshmen/novice eight. The women from Penn came in first 19.2 seconds ahead of second place Temple. The Dragons were only 0.66 seconds behind Temple for a third-place finish, but ahead of Georgetown University by 17.58 seconds.
New to the team, the freshmen recruits participated in the collegiate freshmen/novice eight event. The top three finishes were only separated by about five seconds. These are exciting results for schools to gauge how competitive their incoming classes are. The Temple women placed first with a time of 14:37.07. The team from Navy placed just 1.22 seconds behind them, with Drexel trailing about three seconds behind Navy.
The men’s freshmen/novice eight and the women’s varsity eight both placed fifth in their respective events. The men from Penn took first in the men’s freshmen eight event with a time of 12:13.52. The Dragons were 26.05 seconds back from the Penn crew.
The women’s varsity eight placed fifth behind Temple, Georgetown, Navy and Penn. Penn won the event with a time of 13:15.43 which was 18.9 seconds ahead of second place Navy. Temple rowed a time of 13:43.33 which was about six seconds ahead of the Dragons.
The Dragons will now look ahead as they travel to Massachusetts, for the 54th Head of the Charles Regatta Oct. 20 and 21. The women will participate in the club eights category Oct. 20 while the men will participate in the collegiate eights event Oct. 21.
The women will be racing crews from Yale University, Syracuse University, Northeastern University (Colonial Athletic Association rival), Dartmouth College, Temple, Radcliffe Crew (from Harvard University) and Penn. The men will be racing crews from the University of Virginia, St. Joe’s, University of Michigan, Navy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
These are two very competitive events at the Head of the Charles, and the Dragons will look to see how they can compete against some of the top crews in the nation.
Following the Head of the Charles, the Dragons will return to Philadelphia to participate in the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta Oct. 27 before they travel to Princeton, New Jersey, Oct. 28 for the annual three-mile Princeton Chase.