Rowing Victorious on Final Day of Tulsa Fall Invitational

CATOOSA, Okla. – The University of Kansas rowing program ended its fall season on a high note at the Tulsa Fall Invitational on Saturday morning. The Jayhawks swept the day’s events placing first in both the Women’s Varsity 8 and Women’s Novice 4.

“We have been training hard and I think that showed in our racing,” said Kansas head coach Rob Catloth. “I think we are rowing at a pretty good level right now…across the board I think we had some good improvements since the Jayhawk Jamboree, a lot of things we have worked on at practice we have locked into them and applied them during the race.”

The Jayhawks started off the day powering their way to victory in the Varsity 8 race. The Tulsa Hurricanes jumped out to an early lead but Kansas kept pushing and managed to close the gap, taking the lead in the final strokes and finishing the race with a time of 18:05.8 – while Tulsa finished in 18:06.3. Led by seniors, coxswain Mary Slattery, Maggie Duncan, Tessa Scott, juniors, Allison Schaaf, Katherine Young, Maddie Irelan, and sophomores Brianna Dittberner, Kaelyn Thierolf. Other Kansas boats in the event placed third, seventh and eighth, respectively.

Kansas took that winning momentum and dominated in the Novice 4 race, earning first, second, fourth, and fifth places. Rowing in the wining boat for KU were senior coxswain Briana Pina, and freshman Regan Braun, Lilly Stewart, Marissa Gray, and Meghan Dwyer.

“I think we have made a big advancement in our program,” said Catloth. “In how we train and how we are competing and we want to keep that up and take that into the spring.

The fall portion of the 2015-16 rowing schedule is now complete as the Jayhawks will turn their focus to conditioning and training for the spring season where it will look to build on this fall’s impressive showing. Kansas will get back on the water with a training trip in January to Tampa Bay, Florida and start their spring season on March 15 with a dual against the University of Tulsa.

Varsity 8+ Final
Kansas ‘A’ – 18:05.8
Tulsa ‘A’ – 18:06.3
Kansas ‘B’ – 18:29.0
SMU ‘A’ – 18:40.9
Tulsa ‘B’ – 18:52.4
Tulsa ‘C’ – 19:07.7
Kansas ‘C’ – 19:08.5
Kansas ‘D’ – 19:41.8
SMU ‘B’ – 20:28.9

Novice 4+ Final
Kansas ‘A’ – 22:21.3
Kansas ‘C’ – 22:37.1
SMU ‘B’ – 22:57.0
Kansas ‘B’ – 23:13.2
Kansas ‘D’ – 23:30.2
SMU ‘A’ – 26:18.1