The Massachusetts rowing team caps off their season this weekend at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River.
UMass will be facing over 30 crews from all around the country this weekend. Last year at the Dad Vail Regatta the field included teams such as San Diego, Purdue, Colgate and Villanova. However, familiar conference foes Fordham and St. Joseph's will also join the competition this year.
In last year's regatta, the varsity eight reached the championship race, taking second behind Saint Joe's, who won the even with a time of six minutes, 41.58 seconds and the second varsity eight took third in its championship race, falling to Buffalo in first place and Bucknell in second. The novice eight boat was fifth in its race with a time of 7:15.2.
With a strong, medal-earning performance at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Metro Cup regatta last weekend, the varsity eight boat looks to anchor its team.
Massachusetts coach Jim Dietz will enter five boats at this year's regatta - the varsity eight, second varsity eight, the novice eight, the lightweight eight and the novice four.
Dietz believes that this lineup has a strong chance of bringing home the championship. However, according to Dietz, it will take some effort to accomplish this feat, despite being projected as one of the stronger crews in the regatta.
"We are definitely one of the favorites going into this," Dietz said. "We've got a good shot at winning that team trophy if we can get all of our boats to the finals."
Like the Atlantic 10 Championships, the Dad Vail Regatta will feature a point system, which means that the team's boats are scored collectively. Earlier in the season, UMass faced Colgate and Holy Cross in head-to-head matches, but this regatta will likely determine the best overall squad.
While the major championships have passed, Dietz takes the philosophy that every regatta counts.
"This is something where you're hoping to build on next year," said Dietz. "The more competition that we get for our kids, the better."
A lack of time on the water has been a recurring theme for the Minutewomen, but the circumstances this time are a bit different. Dietz admitted that this put his team at a disadvantage, compared to many of the NCAA Tournament-bound crews at this weekend's regatta, which row competitively for longer.
"One of the advantages of the schools that get to go to the NCAA's is that they get to race that much longer," Dietz said. "We're lucky that this regatta comes before finals so that we are able to do it and keep working on the water as long as possible."
This will also be the final chance to race for the graduating seniors. Co-captains Gabrielle Papineau and Tara Guinan, along with two-time A-10 academic All-Conference and two-time Student Athlete of the Year, Abby Lively will race for the final time in Maroon and White this weekend.
Papineau and Guinan have been staples in the varsity eight boat this year, and Lively contributed to the lightweight eight and lightweight four boats that have only been together since the beginning of this season.
The lightweight eight are coming off of a second place finish last weekend at ECACs in a two-crew race against Buffalo.
Mike Gillmeister can be reached at mgillmei@student.umass.edu.
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