Clemson Invitational Next for Louisville Rowing
April 15, 2015 | Rowing
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville rowing team will return to action this weekend at the Clemson Invitational on Saturday and Sunday at Lake Hartwell.
The Cardinals, ranked 20th last week during an off week from competition, will have varsity eight, second varsity eight, varsity four, second varsity four, third varsity eight and fourth varsity eight crews competing at the two-day event in the Palmetto State. The racing is scheduled to begin with morning and evening sessions on Saturday before concluding with a morning session on Sunday. This will mark the third straight season Louisville has competed at the Clemson Invitational.
"This is one of the biggest regattas of the season, in terms of NCAA Championship selection, because of the number high level programs from major conferences. There's only one automatic qualifier from each conference, so when you several programs from each league at one event like this, they're essentially competing to show the committee who is most deserving of those at-large berths," said Cardinals head coach Derek Copeland. "Obviously, we're focused on improving and our goal is always to do everything we can to win a conference championship, this weekend is the time to kick off our high performance season to put ourselves in the best position possible for an NCAA berth."
Louisville is tentatively slated to compete against No.1 Ohio State, No.10 Washington State, No.16 UCLA, Clemson, Cornell, Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Tennessee during the two days. The Cardinals will travel to Clemson on Thursday morning and will conduct two days of training in preparation for the weekend.
In their last outing, the Cardinals earned a varsity four win at the Oregon State Classic on April 4. Since that event, Copeland and his coaching staff have made adjustments to the Louisville lineups and boat assignments with an eye towards increased efficiency and speed on the water.
"The lineups for this weekend are quite a bit different than what they've been in previous events and the changes have come because of some erg tests," said Copeland. "We've had a couple of opportunities to practice with those and we'll get some additional time with those new lineups during the training at Clemson on Thursday and Friday.
"We've had a good spring thus far but we didn't compete the way I would've liked in the afternoon at Oregon State. We're rowing hard and we're really competing, but we're not as efficient as we need to be, especially late in races when fatigue becomes an issue. We look forward to seeing how these changes translate this weekend."
Following this weekend's racing at Clemson, the Cardinals will have a week of training before competing at Michigan on May 2.
Fans can follow Louisville rowing on Twitter (@UofLRowing) at http://twitter.com/UofLRowing.
