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Crew dominates sole home regatta

In its only home regatta of the season, the Michigan crew team cruised past Michigan State and Mercyhurst this weekend in a tune-up for next weekend's Big Ten championships.

The Wolverines won nine out of the 10 races Saturday on the Huron River. Michigan's women swept all five of their events, while the men's team's only loss came in a second-place finish to Michigan State's varsity four.

In the final events of the day, the men's and women's varsity eights defeated Mercyhurst and the Spartans, who finished second and third, respectively, in both races.

The closest race of the day went to Wolverines' men's junior varsity lightweight eight. Michigan edged the Spartans by 0.3 seconds (10:06.5 to 10:06.8). Mercyhurst finished a distant third with a time of 11:03.3.

It was the novices, though, that made the strongest showing, according to Michigan men's coach Greg Hartsuff and women's coach Mark Rothstein.

The first novice women's boat won its race by 26.4 seconds while the second boat defeated two Spartan entries in its event.

On the men's side, the first novice eight (7:28.1) topped Michigan State (7:39.6) and Mercyhurst (7:41.5). The second novice eight also won its event.

"I'm more pleased with the novice men," Hartsuff said. "The varsity boat won, but they didn't have a particularly good row."

The only Michigan boat not to win its race was the men's varsity four, which finished second to Michigan State.

The regatta, which had more of a scrimmage atmosphere to it, served as a warm-up for the next month of championship regattas, starting with next weekend's Big Ten championships in Indianapolis.

The women and men look to do well in the always-prestigious varsity eight races during the championship run.

"Keep an eye on the (men's) varsity eight," Hartsuff said. "It'll be interesting to see how we do against Ohio State. Wisconsin is the more respected opponent, though."

Hartsuff also expects a good performance from the novice this weekend.

"(The novice) are poised to take the silver or gold. They'll be fighting with Wisconsin," Hartsuff said.

Rothstein expects tough competition from other schools as well.

"Things have changed in the Big Ten; Iowa and Ohio State have varsity programs now," said Rothstein, coach of the soon-to-be-varsity women's squad. "We have a shot of winning (the varsity eight race). We could also finish fourth."