Don Lubbers Cup 2016

After spending the last weekend in sunny San Diego, the varsity boats returned to the Midwest to join the rest of the team heading up to chilly Spring Lake, Michigan for the Don Lubber's Cup against the likes of Grand Valley, Michigan, Purdue, Notre Dame, among others. Each crew was scheduled to race three times on the 1900m course over Saturday and Sunday against a variety of different crews.  Unfortunately, mother nature had different plans, and many of the races had to be shortened, delayed, or even cancelled.Prior to the weather complications, the men's varsity 8 had a strong first race, coming out ahead of both DePaul and Case Western. The varsity women's 8 ended up falling to those same two teams. The novice men also had a good showing, taking second to Michigan State and beating the Michigan 3F and DePaul. In an unfortunate series of events, the novice women's 8 ended up breaking an oar and were forced to row their first race by 7. The men's open 4 then concluded the morning racing taking second to Case Western ahead of Cincinnati.The Saturday afternoon races ended up being delayed until the late evening and the fours races were cancelled. Once again, the varsity men's 8 had a good race, falling to Minnesota but edging out Case Western for the second time that day. The other crews did not fare quite as well after sitting outside in the cold temperatures all day. The two women's eights put up valiant efforts but ultimately fell to varsity level crews in Eastern Michigan, Dayton, and Drake.Sunday morning, everyone woke up to a thick layer of frost and ice. The conditions had not improved from the previous day, and only the varsity eights were able to race before the remainder of the event was cancelled. The varsity men's 8 experienced the difficult conditions first hand and fell to Grand Valley, Cincinnati, and DePaul after multiple seats felling out of the tracks due to ice build-up.Next week, we host the 4th annual Illinois Collegiate Rowing Invitational right here in DeWitt, IL on our home course.Full results can be found here.