2003-04 ROW at NCAA Championships -- Notes & Quotes
5/30/2004 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Rothstein
On the team's third-place overall finish ... "I thought it was a great regatta for us. I'm proud of the way all of our crews raced. Our four got better at each race with this regatta. They had a great final coming in third in the petite final. The second varsity eight rowed a really gutsy race and went out very aggressively. We were a half second out of second place. That was a great race, certainly the best race that that crew has had all year. The varsity eight was the same thing. I thought that we rowed our race and we rowed really well. We just didn't have enough speed to get Yale and Brown. No regrets with the way we raced. We brought our best today and I'm very proud of the way our first varsity eight raced."
On the first varsity eight's third-place showing ... "I think it's a very determined boat. I think that we rowed differently this year. Some races we've gotten out and tried to hold on. In others we have come from behind. We tried to just row a good solid race and I think we did that. I think that this was a determined crew."
Senior Heather Mandoli
On what took place in the first varsity eight race ... "We've always raced all year trying to even split or negative split, so get faster as the race goes on. That whole race we just stayed internally focused and just kept going and (coxswain) Tara Medina called an awesome race. She just kept saying, 'we're where we want to be, we're where we want to be, we still have time to move.' Then we did, we started moving. It was an unbelievable race. It went by extremely quickly. It was a close race the whole way down. The difference between the first and sixth-place crew at every 500 meters was like a boat length. We just kept going. At points we weren't even sure what place we were going. We knew we were walking on crews and didn't know if we had enough time to walk or if we were walking fast enough. We're extremely happy with our result. We had an unbelievable race. It was definitely our best race of the season and that's exactly how you want to finish it up."
On the team's accomplishment ... "I think that the whole team today has exceeded expectations. This season has been unbelievable. We started off to a rocky start. At the beginning of the season, not too many people thought we would be the third-place team in the nation. It's just unbelievable to think of where we've come. This team is something special. It's so close. This is by far the best team in the four years I've been here. The people that make this team up are just something else. It's just special."
N O T E S
With a third-place overall team finish the Maize and Blue achieved the second-best finish at the NCAA Championships in the program's eight-year history. The 2001 team finished second.
The first varsity eight's third-place finish ties (2001) the second-best performance by U-M's top crew. In 2001 the first varsity eight also finished third at the NCAA Championships. The 2003 runner-up performance set the standard for U-M's No. 1 boat.
Players Mentioned
