Nov. 15, 2009

PHILADELPHIA - Four gold medals and two silvers highlighted the La Salle rowing team's strong performance at the annual Frostbite Regatta, held on the Cooper River in Camden, NJ, on Saturday to close out the fall season.

Both women's eight boats picked up first place finishes to head into the winter training season on a high note. The varsity eight boat enjoyed a commanding 24 second lead over runner-up Saint Mary's, and also downed Lafayette, Binghamton and Scranton in the race. They crossed the finish line in 7:42.08.

The novice eights won by nearly a minute over second-place UMBC with a time of 7:58.44. The novice race also included Binghamton, Catholic and George Mason, with the latter two scratching.

Also earning wins on Saturday were the men's novice fours and novice eights. The fours coasted past the competition, as their time of 6:30.20 was 33 seconds ahead of runner-up SUNY-Maritime. They also topped Loyola, Rutgers, Catholic and Scranton in their final, and rowed the only sub-seven minute time in all four novice four finals.

The novice eights squeaked out a thriller over Delaware, topping the Blue Hens by 2.5 seconds with a time of 6:40.85. Loyola, Penn State and Binghamton rounded out the competition.

Unfortunately the men's varsity fours were on the short end of a thrilling race, as they fell to the Temple boat by a heartbreaking 1.21 seconds. They placed second out of six boats with a time of 7:13.41, topping Lafayette, Loyola, SUNY-Maritime and Stony Brook in the process.

Also picking up the number two was the men's JV eight boat as they crossed in 6:56.96, 15 seconds off of Drexel's top time, and the men's varsity eight which lost to Delaware by 18 seconds with a time of 6:42.81.

The crew wrapped up its fall season and now awaits its winter training trip to Tampa, FL, scheduled for the winter break in January.