UST Rowing has record day at Upper Midwest Rowing Championships
The St. Thomas Rowing Team had an exceptional day of racing last Sunday at the Upper Midwest Rowing Championships in Omaha, Neb.
For the first time in the history of the program, the women's varsity eight beat Creighton University and finished in second-place, its highest place ever. Drake University won the event, but the UST women were not far behind at 3.29 seconds. Both Drake and Creighton are NCAA Division I varsity programs.
The women also captured silver medals in the women's varsity pair, the women's novice four and the women's lightweight four, and two bronze medals in the women's varsity four events. The combined finishes placed the women's team in third place for the overall team points trophy behind Creighton and Drake.
The women's varsity eight consisted of: Mary Hammer, Clare Naughton, Shelby Lieffers, Dee Kummerfeld, Kylie Gayan, Danielle Assie, Caitlin O'Leary, Catherine Portmann and coxswain Sarah Hansen.
On the men's side, the men's varsity four beat all competitors by more than half a minute in its season-opening race and completed the course in just over six minutes at 6:01.8. In total, there were 19 crews across four heats with Wichita State coming the closest to the Tommies at 6:32.9. This is the single-largest margin of victory ever for the squad in this event. In the boat were: Jim Portmann, Jonathon Athman, Dmytro Koshevy, Kyle Smisek and coxswain Gina Dolski.
