4 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze to Start Season

On October 12th, 2013, the Illinois Men’s and Women’s Rowing Clubs competed in the Trinity Quad Cities Classic in Moline, IL. The regatta was host to 20 clubs and university teams, including Club Varsity rivals Wheaton University, University of Nebraska, and University of Iowa. The events were predominantly head race format (staggered starts with 15 second intervals between crews, and all crews racing against the clock) over a roughly 4500m course along the Mississippi River. This is the first race of the Fall Season for the University of Illinois Men’s and Women’s Rowing Clubs.Out of 9 entries, Illinois won 4 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze while placing 4th in the remaining two events. Illinois nearly swept the eight-person races taking Gold in the Novice Men’s 8+, Novice Women’s 8+, and Varsity Men’s 8+. The Varsity Women’s 8+ finished 2nd in their event to claim Silver. The 2nd Novice Men’s 8+ finished just off the podium in 4th place, 3 places behind the 1st Novice Men’s 8+ from Illinois. In the four-person races, the Junior Varsity Men’s 4+ finished 3rd in the Men’s 4+ to claim Illinois’ only Bronze medal of the day while the Junior Varsity Women’s 4+ finished in 4th in the Women’s 4+. The day also included two sprint races (crews starting simultaneously side-by-side, racing over a straight course with gold going to the first crew across the line). The Varsity Women’s 4+ won Gold by a wide margin. The Junior Varsity Men’s 4+ won Silver in their sprint race to claim their second medal of the day.Of special note, the Novice Men’s 8+ finished over a full minute (1:05.44) ahead of the second place crew in their event, with a finishing time of 16:10.42. The Novice Women’s 8+ crew also finished by an impressive margin of 43.19 seconds over second place North Park despite a 10 second buoy violation penalty.All Illinois Rowers will be racing at the Baird Head of the Rock on Sunday October 13th where they will face D1 rivals Wisconsin and Minnesota on the Women’s side, while the Men’s Rowing Club will face off against perennial Club Varsity National Champions University of Michigan.For full results, see Regatta Central.