The Kansas State rowing team competed at its first competition of the season at the Head of the Oklahoma regatta in Oklahoma City on Saturday.
The Wildcats placed first in two events, the women’s novice 4+ and the women’s novice 8+ regattas. Three boats also placed in the women’s varsity 8+ event: one placed sixth with a time of 14:13.74, one placed eighth at 14:24.50 and one placed tenth at 14:41.88.
In the women’s novice 4+ event, freshman coxswain Victoria Iacovetti and rowers sophomore Abbey Hebbert, sophomore Caroline Geither, freshman Jazzmyn Pekarek and freshman Taylor Hartman finished first overall with a time of 16:55.47.
“It’s always nice to see the novices win,” head coach Patrick Sweeney said to K-State Sports. “The novice races can be a bit unpredictable, but they did a good job and they did what we would have liked for them to have done.”
In the women’s novice 8+, the boat coxed by lacovetti and rowed by sophomores Leah Gaines, Aubrey Gilchrist, Hebbert, Skylar Gottschalk, Macy Flory and Geither and freshmen Pekarek and Hartman finished the race 20 seconds faster than the next boat with a time of 15:42.29. The University of Oklahoma finished second in this race with a time of 16:04.57 while the University of Central Oklahoma finished third with a time of 16:49.30.
“I think we’re in good shape,” Sweeney said to K-State Sports. “I would have liked for them to be a little sharper, a little more aggressive. If they can hold it together like they did this week and add that aggressiveness, we’ll be in good shape.”
K-State placed ninth overall in the women’s varsity 4+ with a time of 15:58.54. The second 4+ boat for the Wildcats finished 11th with a time of 16:09.15 and the third boat with a time of 16:18.35 came in 13th.
The second and last full rowing meet before the spring season starts will be on Oct. 22. The Wildcat rowing team will compete in the Jayhawk Jamboree in Lawrence.
