April 12, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The final day of the George Washington Invitational saw the varsity boat from the Navy women's rowing team lose a close race to Iowa and defeat George Mason by 12 seconds, Saturday on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

The Mids had defeated Iowa by two seconds in the varsity race during the 2007 G.W. Invite, but this year the Hawkeyes posted a time of 6:19.1 to edge the Mids by 2.6 seconds. Later in the day, Navy recorded a time of 6:30.0 to defeat George Mason by exactly 12 seconds.

"We weren't happy about losing to Iowa, but we learned a lot of lessons in the race, namely that we needed to have a strong sprint at the end of the race," said Navy head coach Mike Hughes. "We were then able to put that lesson to good use and had our best sprint of the season in our second race against George Mason."

Navy's varsity boat opened the regatta Friday with a 12-second victory over MIT.

Though complete results and times are currently unavailable (check back to www.navysports.com for updates), Navy's second varsity crew won both of its races Saturday.

Navy will next play host to Georgetown April 19 on the Severn River in Annapolis.

Varsity
Iowa, 6:19.1; Navy, 6:21.7; St. Joseph's, 6:36.4
Navy, 6:30.0; George Mason, 6:42.0
Second Varsity
Navy, 6:39.6; St. Joseph's, 6:48.8
Navy, 6:48.4; George Mason, 6:56.6; California (lightweight), 7:02.2
Varsity 4
Navy A, 7:23.6; Navy B, 7:40.8; St. Joseph's, 7:50.4
Navy A, 7:21.9; Navy B, 7:43.7; George Mason, 8:01.3
First Novice
St. Joseph's, 6:10.4; Navy, 6:12.7
Navy, 6:58.9; George Mason, 7:24.3
Second Novice
Navy, 6:51.8; George Mason, 7:02.6; Georgetown, 7:09.4
Navy, 7:00.0; Georgetown, 7:13.6; George Washington, 7:22.8