Louisville to Open Spring with Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational
March 12, 2015 | Rowing
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 18th-ranked Louisville rowing team will kick off the 2015 spring season with the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational on Saturday and Sunday at Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Joining the Cardinals at the event will be crews from No. 2 Virginia, No. 9 Yale, No. 12 Notre Dame, Alabama, Kansas, Michigan State, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and UCF. The teams will compete in a series of varsity eight, second varsity eight, varsity four, second varsity and third varsity eight/novice eight races.
The schedule will feature morning and afternoon races on Saturday and a morning session on Sunday. Live scoring for the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational will be available here.
"Everyone with the Oak Ridge Rowing Association does a tremendous job with these events and we're excited to be going back again this spring for this event," said Louisville rowing head coach Derek Copeland. "We have so many top level programs competing this year and it should create some very intense racing, especially for the first event of the spring."
The Cardinals will depart for Oak Ridge on Friday morning and will train at Melton Hill Lake after arriving in east Tennessee later in the day. It will serve as Louisville's first training session on the water this spring and will give Copeland one look at his crews before setting the lineups.
"Our lineups for this weekend will be based on what we had at the end of the fall as well as what we saw during the winter with the work on the erg machines," explained Copeland. "We will certainly shift some people around based on all of the data and information we have but we'll also shoot from the hip on what we think will work best."
Following their first NCAA Championship appearance in 2014 and a 17th-place finish, the Cardinals landed at No. 18 in the preseason CRCA/US Rowing Coaches Poll released on Wednesday. Reigning back-to-back NCAA champion Ohio State was atop the preseason poll while No. 2 Virginia led four ACC schools in the top 20. No. 17 Syracuse joined No. 12 Notre Dame and No. 18 Louisville in the poll.
Fans can follow Louisville rowing on Twitter (@UofLRowing) at http://twitter.com/UofLRowing.
