In its second event of the short fall season, the rowing team showed that it could keep a blooming record of consistency afloat and that a strong first showing was no fluke.
All Buffalo rowing teams that competed in Saturday's regatta at the Syracuse University Invitational finished within the top 10 of their various classes.
The Varsity A boat finished in fifth place. Junior coxswain Katherine Evely steered the girls to a final time of 19:21.3, close to fourth-place Syracuse and only one second behind third-place Cornell.
"Cornell has a bigger program, and they showed that well," said Bulls head coach Rudy Weiler. "We knew they were going to be very strong competitors. Syracuse and UB got matched up very well. We were only four-tenths of a second behind."
Only seven seconds after the Varsity A boat, Buffalo's Varsity B boat finished in seventh place in the race.
The Varsity B lightweight boat showed to have a successful run with the challenging competition. The boat came in seventh place, with the Varsity A boat coming in right behind it in eighth place. The Varsity C boat finished in ninth place to round off the Bulls boats in the A Flight of the regatta.
In the B flight of the regatta, the Bulls E boat recorded a third place finish. The boat, led by sophomore Kara Bucheit, finished with a time of 20:20 and was only three seconds behind the second-place Cornell boat.
In the Novice Eight race, Buffalo showed remarkable success, coming in second place. The Bulls had a time of 19:29 in the showing.
This second outing will prepare the team for the close of the season and the spring semester, which is quickly approaching.
"We have a very young squad, and the girls are trying to learn to be consistent," Weiler said. "When your squad is made up of freshmen and sophomores, you're learning to compete at Division I level. When we get to the spring season, we'll harden up good."
The Bulls' rowing team has been one of the few teams on campus to show consistent success. Weiler expects nothing short of that trend when it comes to the current group of girls.
"I think we have a good program," Weiler said. "We're getting good, young recruits, teaching them to go faster at the Division I level. Are we going to be better in the spring? We are. Are we going to be good enough? At this point, we're going to be taking the next step."
Within the coming week, the girls will face much stiffer competition in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Mass. on Saturday.
The team will see an estimated three-quarters of every Division 1 program in the country. Although the cold weather kills off the suspended algae and makes the water appear cleaner, the girls love the dirty water.
"The girls always get excited about racing in Boston," Weiler said. "You don't have to get them excited for this race."
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Photo: Courtesy of UB Athletics
