Crew brings home Harvey Cup

Coming off a tough fourth-place finish at the Knecht Cup in N.J., the women's Varsity Eight crew team proved its strength in home waters at this weekend's Harvey Cup.

The Bulls' Varsity Eight did so in convincing fashion. Guided by sophomore coxswain Sheralyn Briggs, the Buffalo boat finished ahead of a tough Eastern Michigan squad, winning by just under 10 seconds in a time of 7:15.59 to win the cup, named in memorial after Nan Harvey.

"I thought we pulled together really well," Briggs said. "After having a forth-place finish last weekend, we were really hungry for this race. We came out everyday of practice this week and worked really hard to achieve this."

Joining Briggs in the winning boat were freshmen Lauren Sexton, Bridget Yannes, Melina Dicosimo, and Amanda Garbacz, sophomore Paige Baritot, junior Corinne Blum, and seniors Natalie Pugliese and Emilee Norris.

With The Harvey Cup serving as a memorial to former UB Associate Athletic Director Nan Harvey, who passed away in 2003 after a battle with cancer, the Bulls take pride in the competition.

"It's such a pleasure to see everyone out here for someone like Nan, who was such a true Bulls fan," said Buffalo head coach Rudy Wieler. "The kids really wanted to win for her memory probably more than they wanted it for themselves."

The Varsity Eight was not the only Buffalo boat that was successful on the day. The Novice Eight, the Novice Four boat and the Varsity Four also achieved first-place finishes.

"I was pleased with all the crews," Wieler said. "Especially the Varsity Eight, to win by over 10 seconds in a headwind, with a pretty reasonable time. To win the Harvey Cup for the first time was very nice."

In the first race of the day, the Novice Eight team was up against a local squad from D'Youville College. With a finishing time of 8:18.76, the Bulls won in decisive fashion in a 46-second victory over the Spartans. According to the rowers, this was the first time the boat had rowed together competitively.

"Our boat was just put together on Monday," said Bulls rower Sarah Billiar. "We came together beautifully. We had a controlled boat and everyone worked together really well."

Also finishing first was the Varsity Four who posted a finishing time of 8:37.17, which was good enough to edge out another Buffalo squad for the win. The Lightweight Four team finished just over three seconds later at, 8:40.76. Both boats finished over 20 seconds faster than the third-place Eastern Michigan squad who came in at just over nine minutes.

In the closest race of the day, the Bulls second Varsity Eight lost by under a second to its Eastern Michigan counterpart, after leading for the first half of the race. The Bulls' squad posted a time of 7:25.26 in the mild headwind.

"It was probably one of the better days we've had racing in Buffalo," said Bulls senior from the second Varsity Eight boat, Joanne Olsen. "The wind did hit us going around some turns though, which was not great for racing. We had open water between our boats around the 1,00-meter mark, which is a major turn. But after that they started to walk back up on us."

"The JV's fought really hard," Wieler added. "They led for 1,000 meters, but got nipped just before the finish."

In all, the Buffalo coaching staff was pleased with not only the performance and conditions, but also the amount of support the teams received from spectators.

"I bet we had five or six hundred people here. They were cheering and happy, and we were able to give them some wins," Wieler said. "The weather was great, the crowd was great, the results were great, and the team was great."

The entire Bulls team was proud to win the cup, and pleased that they could win it in Buffalo for the first time.

"It feels great to win at home, in front our own spectators," Briggs said. "It's especially nice to be the first crew from Buffalo to win the cup."

The Bulls will be looking to ride this weekend's success into Lewisburg, Pa. on Saturday, as they are set to row against Bucknell and Colgate on Saturday.