OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University collected six wins in the Opening Day Regatta on the Oklahoma River over the weekend.
OCU took five men's events – the varsity eight, second varsity four, freshman/novice four, pair and varsity single – and the women's lightweight single.
The Stars also earned second-place showings in the men's varsity four, men's varsity single and women's single as well as third in the women's varsity double.
"I am really proud with how our team performed coming off of a tough week with our spring break training camp," OCU coach Cory Conzemius said. "The athletes were tired, but executed well on race day. We wanted to go out there and feel good about our performances while having fun with our first race of the spring, and we accomplished that goal."
Oklahoma City's varsity eight of Andrija Simeunovic, Todor Stankovic, Keaton Knopp, Taylor Broussard, Nikola Uveric, Kyle Brown, Jack Austin, Aidan Moriarty and coxswain Sarah Tyree navigated the 2,000-meter race in 6 minutes, 44.21 seconds. Saturday racing was done over 2,000 meters in the morning and 1,250 meters in the afternoon as the conditions were cold and windy.
In the morning, the Stars' freshman/novice crew of Cody Cobb, Santiago Arias, Corban Melder and Jack Fruehwirth with Lucila Garza finished in 7:23.2. OCU finished in front of Texas in the varsity eight and the freshman/novice four. OCU had the winning mark of 7:52.2 in the second varsity four thanks to the efforts of Uveric, Cobb, Austin, Broussard and Tyree.
In the afternoon, Ruthie Lacy from the Stars posted the top time of 5:32.21 in the women's lightweight single. OCU's pair of Fruehwirth and Melder turned in a time of 5:16.3, while Moriarty completed the varsity single race in 4:47.8, finishing 2.2 seconds ahead of his teammate Brown. Lacy held the lead in the women's single, but crashed into a buoy, leading to her second-place finish.
"Our freshmen crews stood out to me this weekend," Conzemius said. "They performed well during our nightsprints on Friday. Then on Saturday, our men's freshman four put out a very respectable time. That crew is comprised of four walk-ons and one athlete who rowed two years in high school. For the walk-ons, it was their first 2K race ever, which made it even more impressive."
The Stars rowed under the lights Friday night. OCU will train for its postseason racing starting with the Dad Vail Regatta on May 12-13 in Pennsauken, N.J.
"Nightsprints are always a fun way to kick off our fall and spring racing seasons," Conzemius said. "Our training has been mostly volume to this point, so it was nice to see some solid performances over 500m."
