Moran's gold medal signals rowers' success at Colonial Erg
February 23, 2020 | Williamsburg, Va.
Before venturing to Smith Mountain Lake early Tuesday morning for the first outdoor practice of the spring semester, 13 members of Liberty University's crew team tested their progress from winter conditioning at Sunday's Colonial Erg Sprint hosted by William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
The competition included individuals from Liberty, Mary Washington, VCU, Virginia Tech, and William & Mary racing on stationary rowing machines.
"It was a good event, a nice opportunity to get in a competitive atmosphere with other teams on the rowing machines to see where we stack up, as well as focus on personal performance to see where their training has taken them," Liberty Head Coach Debbie Prowse said. "It was a good assessment to see if our conditioning and weight training is contributing to their performance, power-wise. We had a really good day with 11 out of the 13 rowers clocking PRs."
Lady Flames junior Joanna Moran earned a gold medal in the women's open weight race, finishing the 2,000-meter course in 7 minutes, 37 seconds. Senior Victoria Drumheller placed fifth in that event in 7:55.10 followed by sophomore Lindsey Bicknell (ninth in 8:14.10).
In the collegiate women's novice open weight race, sophomore Morgan Schaible finished third in 7:38.4 and Mikayla Burton seventh in 8:02.4 out of 25 rowers.
On the men's side, senior varsity heavyweight rower Ryan Krupansky finished 12th out of 23 rowers in 6:48.3 and freshman Aleck Tilbrook came in ninth out of 23 rowers in the novice heavyweight race in 7:15.0.
Complete results are available online.
Prowse is eager to see how her rowers perform on the open water, starting this week in practice.
"We have been training indoors five days per week, combining workouts on indoor rowing machines, stationary cycling, and swimming workouts along with weight lifting on Tuesdays and Thursdays in preparation for our spring 2K season," she said. "We have definitely shown improvement since winter break."
Rowers will be training four days per week out of Liberty's boathouse at Mitchell's Point Marina, where they will endure two-a-day workouts over spring break from March 16-21. That will help them gear up for their first regatta, the April 4 Waterfield Cup hosted by Virginia Tech in Dublin, Va., featuring teams from around the state.
The men's and women's teams will then travel to Clemson to compete against the Tigers, Georgia, Georgia State, and Georgia Tech before rowing in two championship regattas — the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA) in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) over Memorial Day weekend in Gainesville, Ga.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
