PENNSAUKEN, N.J. – The Men's Varsity 8+ crew competed at the first day of the 2023 Dad Vail Regatta on the Cooper River Friday.
The Panthers opened the event by placing ninth in the 18-team field with a time trial of 5:41.633. Leading the pack with the top three times at the end of time trials were Drexel (05:25.669), Colgate (5:27.086) and La Salle (05:28.566).
With the Panthers seated ninth at the end of the time trials, they were placed to go up against La Salle (05:28.566), St. Josephs (05:28.807), Marietta (05.44.220) Army West Point (05:57.937) and Georgia Tech (05.59.562.) in the third and final semifinal. The top two teams from each semifinal advanced to the Grand finale, with the third and fourth teams in each semifinal advancing to the petit final, both on Saturday afternoon.
In the Men's Varsity 8+ Semi 3, the men covered the 2,000-meter course in 05:59.639 for a third-place finish, just under 10 seconds off La Salle (05:49.357) who claimed first and Saint Joseph's (05.53.745) who earned second place.
At the start of the race, the men started in lane two and hopped out bow to bow with La Salle in lane three and Saint Joseph in lane four before dropping back to third 500m into the race. La Salle pulled ahead 750m in and never lost the lead while the Panthers were overlapping with the Hawks. Throughout the last 700m boat's one through four were all open waters between each other. In the final 275m, Tech was a boat length down out of second still in third and maintained their place in third through the finish line.
Varsity 8+
Coxswain /
Elizabeth Bowman
8 /
Sandro Gardella
7 /
Justas Kuskevicius
6 /
Domantas Marocka
5 /
Omer Bayram
4 /
Joshua Navarro
3 /
Zach Judge
2 /
Arnedas Kelmelis
Bow /
Hayden Linkel
UP NEXT: Florida Tech is back on the water Saturday, May 13
th to close out the Dad Vail Regatta. The V8+ will compete in the Petite Final at 4:50 p.m.
For the latest news, updates and information on the Florida Tech men's rowing team, visit FloridaTechSports.com. Fans can also stay up-to-date on the latest Panthers news by following Florida Tech Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
