ACRA 2017 Recap

Last weekend, May 27th and 28th, the team traveled to Gainesville, Georgia to race at ACRA. Traveling Wednesday allowed the team to practice the course four times before racing began on Saturday morning, getting reacclimated to the venue which was the site of the John Hunter Regatta and our spring break training. Sunday morning the men’s varsity finals C-E were postponed due to weather. Luckily the rain stopped and racing continued. The M1V+ happened later that day instead of in the morning.Due to the number of varsity men's teams, all M1V8 participated in a time trial. Taking 30th out of 38 by rowing a 6:07.66, the men raced a second time Saturday in the 3rd Repechage. The men took 7th and moved on to the E final on Sunday which they took 3rd. This ends the rowing careers of Owen Skelding and Curtis Bezault at the University of Illinois.For the women’s varsity team, Lindsey Cusack rowed the single Saturday morning and finished second in her heat. The 2x, rowed by Vanessa Aceves and Lexi McGargill, also placed second in their heat at a 9:41. On Sunday, both the single, 9:59, and double, 9:28, placed 6th in the grand finals. All three varsity members learned how to scull over spring break this year, only rowing in these boats for two months each.The novice men’s team finished 4th in the third heat on Saturday morning and finished 3rd in their repechage later that day. On Sunday, the team took 3rd in the B Final racing at a 6:47. This is the highest any men’s novice team for Illinois placed since the founding of the team.On Saturday, the women’s novice team took fourth in the second heat, moving on to repechages later that day. In their repechage, Illinois took first by eleven seconds which allowed them to move onto the grand final. Taking 4th on Sunday in the grand final, the novice women finished at 7:43.748, the highest placement of any women’s novice team.