The women's rowing team had one of its most impressive performances of the season over the weekend at the Knecht Cup. The Bulls had a total of six boats reach the grand finals led by their elite group of girls in the Varsity Eight.
Two boats placed in the top three for Buffalo, earning a medal. The Varsity Eight boat finished in second place and the Lightweight Four boat took third.
Head coach Rudy Wieler contributes his team's recent success to the fact that the women on his teams are starting to buy into the fact of how good they actually are.
"That's what it is in sports, that's what it is all about, if you actually start to believe in what your doing and what your capable of doing, you actually really end up reaching your potential," Wieler said.
The Varsity Eight finished the first day with two first place finishes. They crossed the finish line at 6:47.2 in the first race, and in the second race improved their time by three seconds, finishing eight seconds better than the boats behind them.
The Bulls Varsity Eight finished a fraction of a second off of their first race time, in the semifinal round, finishing the race with a time of 6:47.3. On the merits of their two first place finishes, the boat earned a spot in the grand final. Buffalo finished with a time of 6:44.0, about eight seconds behind the first place finisher, Bucknell.
"This is truly a team thing. We're not looking for individual stats or individual efforts, what we had was a varsity crew that stood out for us," Wieler said. "They were together, they were bonded, they were committed to each other and they were committed to the idea that they thought they could win the race."
Wieler expressed that his team never gave up, even when reality struck that they could not pass Bucknell. They kept working because they knew the importance of second place.
Even though the Varsity Eight was the top-performing boat over the weekend, they were not the only Buffalo boat to stand out. The Lightweight Four boat finished in third place at 8:06.4, just behind the Pittsburgh and Tulsa squads.
The Bulls also had a Novice Four boat that finished in fourth place in its final. The Buffalo Varsity Four boat came across the line behind five other boats for a sixth place finish in the grand final.
The Second Varsity Eight boat, and The Bulls Second Varsity Four boat also came in fourth place in their grand final, and Buffalo's Lightweight Eight boat finished third in the petite final.
"They went somewhere they haven't gone before, we beat crews that we've never beaten before and they accomplished something that we never have before; being second in that race," Wieler said
Buffalo beat many teams that they have struggled to beat in the past. They beat teams like the University of Massachusetts, which hadn't been defeated during their seven years of rowing at the varsity level. This past weekend the Bulls beat them twice.
The Bulls will be back in action when they race at home for the first time all season, hosting Colgate, Connecticut and Eastern Michigan. The races will begin at 8 a.m. on the Tonawanda Creek. The Bulls hope to continue their hot streak, train a little harder, and continue to feed off the success of the Varsity Eight.
"I really feel all the crews are feeding off the Varsity Eight, and I think were going to do a little bit more work on our fitness, and some endurance training, some sprint training on the water, and I think that will help us to get all of our crews ready to go on that last day as well," Wieler said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
