Women Win Chicago Indoor Rowing Championships

The Women’s team was led by Illini’s All-American Danielle Saubert, who set a new event record in the Collegiate Women’s Varsity event en route to winning her second gold in as many years. Her time of 7:03.6 breaks the previous record by 7 seconds. In the Collegiate Women’s Lightweight Novice category, freshman Jessica Ayers and Karen Chiu took silver and bronze respectively. The day was capped by the relay race, in which the team of Danielle Saubert, Meridith Kisting, Tessa Copple, Melissa Schick, and Marissa Josupait won gold – the first Illini Squad to do so. Among the 20 woman squad, the Illini managed 9 Top-10 finishes across three events. In so doing, they also captured the Women’s Team Championship.The Men’s team captured gold in the Collegiate Men’s Lightweight Varsity event when Kevin Szubrych set the new team Lightweight record with a time of 6:39.0. Alumni Tom King, holder of the previous lightweight record, was in the crowd to witness the win. The Men’s Varsity Relay squad took third in the relay challenge behind Purdue and Michigan State, and ahead of the Novice Men’s Relay team from Illinois who finished 4th out of 17 teams. The 24 man team also managed 9 Top-10 finishes in the competition. The Men’s Team finished 3rd in the Team Championship.