No glory for blue

Blue finishes fifth at rowing nationals

LOUIS BROWN/Daily Michigan's rowing team captured fifth place in the nation yesterday on Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga. Both varsity eight boats finished fifth in their races.

As the Washington crew crossed the finish line in the National Rowing Championships at Lake Lanier, Ga., yesterday, Michigan's hopes for the first women's national title in school history vanished for the second time in as many weeks.

The Michigan rowing team, seeded third, finished fifth in both the first-varsity and second-varsity eight races, and seventh in the varsity four race. Michigan's 70 team points were good enough for fifth place, 21 points behind the Huskies.

Michigan finished behind Washington, Brown (85 points), Virginia (76) and Massachusetts (72).

Despite being a varsity program for just two years, the finish was disappointing for the Wolverines, who had their sights set on a national title. Last week, the Michigan softball team, also expected to contend for a national title, finished in the lower tier of the College World Series, leaving Michigan still searching for its first women's national title after 25 years of varsity athletics.

"We're not going to be happy with just being there," Michigan coach Mark Rothstein said last week.

Then the Michigan rowers aren't going to be happy at all.

Michigan's first-varsity eight shell started off strong and was in second place, just .60 seconds behind the first-place Huskies, after 500 meters.

But as the race wore on, the Wolverines wore down.

After 1,000 meters, the Wolverines slipped to third as second-seeded Brown passed them.

Michigan would spend the rest of the race watching BrownÕs backs.

In the third leg of the race, Massachusetts surged past Michigan, and Northeastern did the same in the final 500.

Michigan's final finish time of 7:02.20 was over 10 seconds behind top-ranked Washington, which claimed its second straight rowing title.

In the second-varsity eight race, the Wolverines also finished fifth, with a time of 7:19.70, behind Virginia, Washington, Brown and Princeton. The WolverinesÕ finish was 8.50 seconds off of the Cavaliers' first-place mark.

In the varsity four, the Wolverines didnÕt qualify for the final, finishing fourth in their semifinal heat Saturday. The top three teams in each heat advanced to the finals.

But Michigan's varsity four finished first in the petite finals -- the runner-up race -- giving them a seventh-place finish overall. Their time of 7:57.70 in the petite final would have given them fourth place in the final had they qualified.

The Wolverines were behind Iowa's boat for most of the race, but surged past the Hawkeyes in the final 500 meters. The Hawkeyes finished second in the race -- eighth overall -- 1.5 seconds behind the Wolverines.

06-01-98