Old Dominion University women’s rowing team finished its participation at the Lake Wheeler Invitational on April 26. The event, hosted by North Carolina and Duke, saw ODU compete in nine races over two days.
The regatta is significant for the Monarchs as it provided valuable experience and preparation ahead of upcoming championships. The team had to adjust its line-ups due to injuries but managed to adapt throughout the rounds.
Brian Conley, head coach of Old Dominion women’s rowing, said, “The Lake Wheeler Invitational was a good regatta to go to for us. I know we will definitely return. We had to shift line-ups around amongst the three rounds of racing as we are trying to manage some injuries. I think the athletes that moved into new boats stepped up when they needed to. We will spend the next three weeks working on preparation, consistency, and execution for the BIG 12 Championship.”
During Friday’s races, Old Dominion’s V4+ boat finished seventh with a time of 8:04.50 in an event won by North Carolina with a time of 7:20.67. In another race that afternoon, ODU’s second varsity eight (2V8+) placed sixth but managed to finish ahead of West Virginia with a time of 7:01.84; Lehigh edged out ODU for fifth place by less than a second.
The team’s best result came in event #14 when the first varsity eight (1V8+) finished fifth with a time of 6:54.15 behind Miami, North Carolina, Clemson and SMU.
In subsequent races during the regatta’s final day, Old Dominion faced challenges and finished last in six events despite close margins in some heats.
Looking ahead, Conley said preparations would continue as “we will spend the next three weeks working on preparation, consistency and execution for the BIG 12 Championship.” The Monarchs’ next competition is scheduled for May 15-17 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota.
