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UB Rowing Victorious In Varsity 8+ To Win Harvey Cup

Varsity 8+ Crew

An all-around team effort highlighted Saturday's successful regatta as Buffalo won four of five races on its home waters of the Tonawanda Creek, despite dealing with a slight headwind.

Sheralyn Briggs

Both boats in the Varsity 8+ event got off to a fantastic start, going stroke-for-stroke for the first 1,000 meters of the race. The crew, headed by coxswain Sheralyn Briggs (St. Catharines, Ont./West Park), managed to steer the shell flawlessly and maneuver past the opposing Eastern Michigan crew to take the win for UB in a time of 7:15.59, eight seconds quicker than the Eagles. The eight boat of Lauren Sexton (Niagara Falls, NY/St Paul), Melina DiCosimo (Niagara Falls, Ont./St. Paul), Corinne Blum (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Sutherland), Bridget Yannes (Edgewater Park, NJ/Holy Cross), Paige Baritot (Orchard Park, NY/Buffalo Seminary), Amanda Garbacz (St. Catharines, Ont./Dennis Morris), Natalie Pugliese (Niagara Falls, Ont./St. Paul), and Emilee Norris (Cheektowaga, NY/Cheektowaga) made UB Rowing history by clinching the Harvey Cup title after coming up short in the past two cup Varsity 8+ races.

To lead off the day's events, Buffalo exhibitioned in the Novice 8+ event against local crew D'youville. The Bulls boat coasted easily to victory by 46 seconds over the local Spartans.

Natalie Pugliese

The day's first three-lane contest set off immediately following the exhibition race with Buffalo entering two boats to EMU's one in the Novice 4+ event. The four boat, consisting of coxswain Adriane Wotawa-Bergen (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca), Morgan Witte (Baldwinsville, NY/C.W. Baker), Amy Eggleston (Ripley, NY/Ripley), Kristen Lane (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech), and Amanda Mackeigan (Brockville, NY/Brockville), thrusted quickly to pull ahead and sail to the first win of the morning for the Bulls. Their time of 8:09.74 was a whole 30 seconds better than EMU.

Emilee Norris

An exciting matchup was featured in the Varsity 4+, with Buffalo setting off a lightweight and a varsity boat while Eastern Michigan set off one varsity boat. Each boat went blade-for-blade up to the finish line, where the boat of coxswain Katie Jones (Clarence, NY/Clarence), Maggie Fairgrieve (Fort Erie, Ont./Lakeshore Catholic), Thandiwe Price (Springfield Gardens, NY/Frank Sinatra), Maren Greene (Ann Arbor, MI/Ann Arbor Community), and Diane Passenant (Lake Ronkonkoma, NY/Sachem North) crossed first in a time of 8:40.76. The lightweight UB boat, featuring coxswain Kaitlin Buchheit (Amherst, NY/Amherst), Katie Barnum (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa), Emily Clark (North Collins, NY/Lake Shore), Beth Gaworecki (Baldwinsville, NY/C.W. Baker), and Jennifer Delone (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta), coasted three seconds later to place second, and EMU placed third in 9:03.71.

The Second Varsity 8+ was tight all the way to the end, with each run coasting in unison for the entire 2,000 meter course. Eastern Michigan pulled away in the end by .76 seconds to win its first event. Coxswain Margaret Devendorf (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool), Chandra Hazey (Riverview, MI/Riverview), Bonnie McVicker (Syracuse, NY/C.W. Baker), Joanne Olsen (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna), Jessica Hughes (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool), Jackie Stone (Syracuse, NY/Nottingham), Nicole Cyr (Groton, NY/Dryden), Alexis Grates (Fredonia, NY/Fredonia), and Karen Corey (Kingston, NY/Kingston) took first in its race in the Knecht Cup in a time of 7:29.3 last Saturday and looked to continue its winning ways, but came up short despite placing a better time of 7:26.22 Saturday.

In light of Buffalo's first Harvey Cup victory, head coach Rudy Wieler was thrilled after being presented with the Harvey Cup by some of the surviving relatives of Nan Harvey.

"Great weather, great crowd, great team, great day," Wieler commented briefly.

The Bulls take the week to celebrate a program milestone before heading back into the waters against Bucknell and Colgate in Lewisburg, PA on April 22.

Saturday's Event Times

Novice 8+ (exhibition)
UB - 8:18.76
D'Youville - 9:04.89

Novice 4+
UB A - 8:09.74
EMU - 8:36.93
UB B - 9:11:53

Varsity 4+
UB Varsity - 8:37.17
UB Lightweight - 8:40.76
EMU - 9:03.71

2nd Varsity 8+
EMU - 7:25.26
UB - 7:26.22

Varsity 8+ (Harvey Cup Championship)
UB - 7:15.59
EMU - 7:24.27