Printer-Friendly Format     E-mail this article     Amanda Polk and the Irish varsity eight will look to win the NCAA Petite Final for the second consecutive year on Sunday.

 
Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight and Varsity Four Qualify For NCAA Petite Finals

Sunday marks final of competition at 2007 NCAA Championships.

May 26, 2007

Oak Ridge, Tenn. - Notre Dame's varsity eight crew, second varsity eight and varsity four crews will row in Sunday's (May 27) Petite Finals at the 2007 NCAA Rowing Championships being held on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn. This marks the second straight year that all three boats will row in the Petite Finals at the NCAAs.

Notre Dame's varsity eight crew of coxswain Maria Romano (River Forest, Ill.), Lauren Buck (Flint, Mich.), Meghan Boyle (Pittsburgh, Calif.), Christine Trezza (Staten Island, N.Y.), Allison Marsh (Mashpee, Mass.), Laura Pearson (Bloomington, Minn.), Mary Quinn (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.), Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Julie Sobolewski (Haddonfield, N.J.), ranked sixth nationally, went up against No. 3 Virginia, No. 1 USC, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 7 Stanford and No. 10 Tennessee in the second of two semifinal heats. The Irish were edged out for a berth in the Grand Final with their fourth-place finish. Notre Dame finished with a time of 6:29.56 and were less then a second behind third-place Virginia as the Cavaliers posted a time of 6:28.64.

USC and Ohio State also will join Virginia in tomorrow's Grand Final. USC won the heat in 6:27.29, while the Buckeyes were second in 6:28.28. Tennessee finished fifth in 6:33.57 and Stanford was sixth in 6:40.16. Those two boats also will race against Notre Dame in the Petite Final. The three boats advancing to Sunday's Grand Final out of the first heat were No. 2 Yale (6:22.93), No. 4 Brorwn (6:25.50) and No. 9 Princeton (6:27.25). No. 12 Harvard was fourth in 6:27.62, followed by No. 15 Dartmouth (6:30.47) and No. 11 Minnesota (6:30.72). Those three boats also will make up tomorrow's Petite Final.

Notre Dame's second varsity eight crew of coxswain Stephanie Szegedi (South Lyon, Mich.), Anni Nowhitney (Ballston Spa, N.Y.), Mallory Glass (Okemos, Mich.), Ankica Jedry (Chicago, Ill.), Lindsay McQuaid (Beaverton, Ore.), Brittney Kelly (Wexford, Pa.), Jessica Guzik (Annandale, Va.), Elli Greybar (Western Springs, Ill.) and Sarah Kate Hafner (Tampa, Fla.) earned a spot in the Petite with their fifth-place finish in repechage heat 2. The Irish posted a time of 6:56.92 in the five-boat race. Washington won the heat in 6:39.32, followed by Minnesota in 6:39.94 as those two boats earned a spot in Sunday's Grand Final. Tennessee finished third in the heat in 6:46.88, while USC was fourth in 6:50.12 as those two crews also will be a part of the Petite Final.

Ohio State (6:40.93) and California (6:42.22) finished in the top two spots of repechage heat 1 and earned the two other spots in the Grand Final, while Yale (6:42.78), Harvard (6:46.96) and Princeton (6:59.13) qualified for Sunday's Petite Final.

The varsity four crew of coxswain Sarah Keithley (Austin, Tex.), Laura Petnuch (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Erica Copeland (Marietta, Ga.), Shannon Cassel (Bettendorf, Iowa) and Mary Kate McNamara (North Potomac, Md.) was placed in repechage heat 2. The Irish edged out Ohio State for fourth place with a time of 7:46.61, while the Buckeyes registered a time of 7:46.90. Yale and Washington earned two of the spots in the Grand Final by winning the heat in 7:33.20 and 7:35.31, respectively. Minnesota, which finished third with a time of 7:37.16, will row in Sunday's Petite Final.

The top two boats out of the repechage heat 1that qualified for the Grand Final were California (7:30.52) and Princeton (7:31.71). USC (7:33.62), Harvard (7:41.96) and Tennessee (7:49.61) rounded out the final three places in the heat to earn a spot in the Petite Final.