WOMEN'S ROWING

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Head coach Meg Barnes

BUFFALO, NY ­ While all of the other University at Buffalo athletic teams compete in the Mid-American Conference, the women's crew team is not part of the league because the sport is not sponsored by the MAC. Therefore, for the UB crew team, the path to post-season glory lies with this weekend's Metro Cup, to be held concurrently with the ECAC National Invitational Rowing Championships. Ten Division I schools will compete for the Metro Cup title this weekend.

This year's ECAC meet, formerly known as the Avaya Collegiate Championships, is the 11th annual event and will be held on the Cooper River in Camden, NJ. It will be the second year that the Metro Cup will be awarded as a means for East Coast Division I schools to isolate themselves from other programs in a championship whose format and point system follows that of the NCAA Championship.

The Cooper River course will also serve as host for two other ECAC sponsored events, the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC) and Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships later this month.

UB's squads have put together an impressive season thus far and look to the Metro Cup races to be the capper of a successful year. Four of the Bulls' five entries at last weekend's New York State Championships on Whitney Lake near Binghamton produced medal-winners, including the novice four team capturing the gold. UB's first and second varsity eights as well as the novice eight rowed to second-place finishes.

Earlier in the season, the Bulls traveled to the Knecht Cup races, held at the same Cooper River venue as this weekend's races, and finished with all four entries advancing into their final rounds. The novice eight squad reached the Grand Finals, the equivalent of a championship race, and placed second while the other three boats, first and second varsity eights and novice four, made the Petite Finals, the equivalent of a consolation race. UB's first varsity eight was victorious and the second varsity eight took second in its races.

Other coaches have started to take notice of the Bulls. In the most recent ECAC/Metro poll of April 23, UB's novice eight team ranks first ahead of such programs as St. Joseph's, Villanova and Massachusetts. UB's first and second varsity eights as well as the varsity four also rank in their polls with both eights sitting fourth and the varsity four at sixth. In the first varsity eight poll, West Virginia, Massachusetts and Fordham rank higher than the Bulls.

Ten Division I programs will be competing in this weekend's championships. The other schools are Army, Colgate, Delaware, Fordham, St. Joseph's, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Villanova and West Virginia. UB has raced several of these teams during the spring and should fare well on the 2,000-meter sprint course.

UB's novice eight will open the racing heats on Sunday with a 7:30 am start. Second varsity eight will push off at 7:50 am, followed by the varsity four at 8:50 am and the varsity eight at 10:50 am. Finals will be run in the afternoon. The NCAA point system will be used in determining a team champion with points awarded in the varsity races only. No points will be scored in the novice races.

A relatively new sport to the NCAA landscape, rowing, sometimes referred to as crew, became an NCAA Championship event in 1997. Since that time, only two schools, Brown and the University of Washington, have taken home national titles. Since 1997, approximately 30 Division I programs have added the sport, including UB which started the program in 1998.

"The competition structure for newer programs to gain national recognition is still in the building process," said head coach Meg Barnes. "In the meantime, UB's women's rowing program is gaining speed. We look forward to the challenge and opportunity the Metro Championship represents."