Cardinals Powered by Strong Afternoon Session On Day 1 at the ORCI

Louisville V8s row at ORCI on Melton Lake

Cardinals Powered by Strong Afternoon Session On Day 1 at the ORCI

March 16, 2024 | Rowing

Action resumes Sunday morning at the Melton Lake Rowing Venue

By: Lori Harmon

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Day 1 at the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational was highlighted by a pair of top two finishes for the host University of Louisville rowing team Saturday afternoon at the Melton Lake Rowing Venue.

"It can sometimes be difficult to target individual improvements and effectively evaluate progress in our sport," said UofL head coach Derek Copeland. "The boats have very clear targets at the end of the first session. Many of them felt the improvements and it seemed to play out in the results. The Varsity 4 was able to turn that focus into a victory. That has been a long time coming and we are very proud of how they won that race with a photo finish."

The Cardinals raced Alabama and Notre Dame in the morning session with the V8, 2V8, V4, 2V4 and 3V4 boats in the water.

In the afternoon session, Louisville raced Navy and Clemson in the V8, 2V8, V4 and 2V4 and matched up against Wisconsin and Alabama in the 3V4. The session was highlighted by a first-place finish for the V4 boat with Mackenna Billington coxing Ali Matthews, Haley Kunz, Mary Noschang and Emma Bell to a time of 7:23.701 and edging out Navy in a photo finish.

"We went into this race with a really strong mindset knowing we could show them who Louisville rowing is," said Billington. "Every stroke we fought for one more inch and really pushed to leave it all on the course."

Also in the late session, Louisville's V8 boat placed second behind Clemson with a time of 6:34.055.

"We showed a purposeful aggression to the start of our 2024 season across the boats and learned a lot about how to implement the changes in rhythm that we've been working on during spring break training camp," said assistant coach Ed Oxlade. "There was progressive improvement in the afternoon session, culminating in the exciting photo finish victory of the varsity 4+ to overhaul the US Naval Academy and ACC foe, Clemson. This, coupled with decisive improvements in the v8 and 2v8 in particular have raised confidence and expectations from the group going into tomorrow's racing and the rest of the season. Go Cards!"

The Cardinals are hosting a 10-team field that features a pair of teams ranked in the 2024 Preseason Pocock Collegiate Rowing Association Poll in No. 13 Duke and No. 16 Indiana as well as three teams receiving votes: Alabama, Notre Dame and Wisconsin. Other participating teams are Navy and San Diego as well as ACC opponents Clemson and North Carolina.

ORCI Action resumes Sunday morning with the first heat going off at 8:34 a.m. UofL's first boat will start at 9:38.

Results (Morning Session)
V8
1 – Alabama (6:40.480)
2 – Notre Dame (6:36.415)
3 – Louisville (6:40.480)

2V8
1 – Alabama (6:33.454)
2 -Notre Dame (6:39.037)
3 – Louisville (6:51.897)

V4
1 – Notre Dame (7:18.621)
2 – Alabama (7:20.412)
3 – Louisville (7:25.917)

2V4
1 – Alabama a (7:20.034)
2 – Alabama b (7:24.643)
3 - Notre Dame (7:35.834)
4 – Louisville (7:58.942)

3V4
1 – Alabama (7:24.919)
2 – Notre Dame (7:54.409)
3 – Louisville (7:56.921)

Results (Evening Session)
V4
1 – Louisville (7:23.701)
2 – Navy (7:23.875)
3 – Clemson (7:29.039)

2V4
1 – Navy (7:23.398)
2 – Clemson b (7:27.356)
3 – Clemson a (7:36:680)
4 – Louisville (7:57.848)

3V4
1 – Alabama (7:44.425)
2 – Wisconsin (8:00.773)
3 – Louisville (8:33.268)

V8
1 – Clemson (6:34.055)
2 – Louisville (6:36.331)
3 – Navy (6:38.695)

2V8
1 – Clemson (6:40.411)
2 – Navy (6:45.739)
3 – Louisville (6:56.14)

Lineups Saturday AM session, Saturday PM
V8
C Izzy Hussey
8 Lexi Bernard
7 Claire Carver-Ritter
6 Evey Peplowski
5 Kaylie Leonard
4 Macy Whisenand
3 Payton Stinson
2 Madeline Giron
1 Isabella Ulloa

2V8
C Olivia Guarnaccia
8 Graycen West
7 Cierra Chavez
6 Victoria Iorillo
5 Neala Marshall
4 Taylor Fausey
3 Gabrielle Zanoni
2 Bradlie Hicks
1 Alaina Holder

V4
4 Emma Bell
3 Mary Noschang
2 Haley Kunz
1 Ali Matthews
C Mackenna Billington

Saturday AM
2V4
4 Carlie Pennington
3 Grace Rodebaugh
2 Bria Ragauckas
1 Daya Wilde
C Leah Watters

Saturday PM
2V4
4 Carlie Pennington
3 Grace Rodebaugh
2 Bria Ragauckas
1 Daya Wilde
C Cecilia Kern

Saturday AM
3V4
4 Lauren Stedry
3 Stella Mancini
2 Margot Kaufman
1 Kate Eisenbeis
C Leigh Hatton

Saturday PM
3V4
4 Lauren Stedry
3 Stella Mancini
2 Emma Wolfe
1 Kate Eisenbeis
C Hannah Cease

SCHEDULE

SUN AM	EVENT	Lane 6	Lane 5	Lane 4	Lane 3
8:34 AM	3V8/1N8	WISC	NAVY	DUKE	ND
8:42 AM	V8	WISC	NAVY	DUKE	ND
8:50 AM	1V4	WISC	NAVY	DUKE	ND
8:58 AM	2V8	WISC	NAVY	DUKE	ND
9:06 AM	2V4	WISC	NAVY	DUKE	ND
9:14 AM	3V4		WISC	ND
9:22 AM	4V8/2N8		WISC	INDIANA
9:30 AM
9:38 AM	3V4		LVILLE	UNC
9:46 AM	V8	USD	LVILLE	UNC
9:54 AM	1V4	USD	LVILLE	UNC
10:02 AM	2V8	USD	LVILLE	UNC
10:10 AM	2V4	USD	LVILLE	UNC
10:18 AM
10:26 AM	3V8/1N8	INDIANA	CLEMSON	BAMA	UNC
10:34 AM	V8	INDIANA	CLEMSON	BAMA
10:42 AM	1V4	INDIANA	CLEMSON	BAMA
10:50 AM	2V8	INDIANA	CLEMSON	BAMA
10:58 AM	2V4	INDIANA	CLEMSON	BAMA	BAMA(b)
11:06 AM	3V4	INDIANA	CLEMSON	BAMA