Panthers Dominate at the Rollins Tri-Meet in Womens Rowing

WINTER PARK, Fla. (women’s rowing) — Florida Tech faced SSC opponent the Rollins College Tars and DI University of Florida Gators in a tri-meet at the Tars
UT Bradley Boathouse on Lake Maitland for 1,950 meter course. The day was a beautiful day out on Lake Maitland the lake conditions were flat while the air
was a typical warm springtime day in Central Florida.

For the day the Panthers dominated three out the five races and came in second in the other two events. Tech’s women’s varsity eight came away with the
best time of the day in women’s racing grabbing the gold with a 6:57.2. The Panthers defeated Rollins’ (7:05.6) by more than eight seconds and Florida
(7:22.1) by at least 25 seconds. The members of the WV8 included six freshman, two seniors and one sophomore led by senior coxswain Morgan Tweedie (Osprey,
Fla.) and stroked by freshman Laurel Borgais (Spokane, Wash.).

Other members of the boat; sophomore Jennifer “JJ” Johnson (Portland, Ore.) in the seven seat, freshman Cheryl Skibski (Tolland, Mass.) in the six seat,
freshman Amanda Saeger (Des Plaines, Ill.), senior Rachel Purvis (Brockville, Ontario) in the four seat, freshman-recruit Samantha Roman (Jacksonville,
Fla.) in the three seat, freshman Julie Mabry (St. Louis, Mo.) in the two seat and freshman Mikaela “Micky” Devaux (Gros-Islet, St. Lucia) in the bow seat.

Tech also managed to defeat all three of the University of Florida’s A, B and C boats with a winning time of 7:38.1. The members of the WN8 included
varsity eight members Saeger, Borgais, Skibski, Roman, Mabry, Devaux, along with Naomi Bordrick (New Port Richey, Fla.) and Mugdha Bansode (Pune, India).
The Novice eight was led by freshman coxswain Ana Mantilla (Quito, Ecuador).

In the third race the Panthers again pulled off a top finish in the WV4 with a time of 7:38.9 defeating Rollins and University of Florida’s A and B boats.

Although the DII division still included rowers from the varsity eight for both Rollins and Florida Tech, the Tars edged the Panthers by two tenths of a
second coming in with the silver finish of 8:06.5 to Rollins’ gold finish of 8:06.3. Members of Tech’s DII WV4 included Mantilla in the coxswain seat,
Purvis stroking the boat, senior Safia Tappan (Sarasota, Fla.) in the three seat, Bordrick in the two seat and Bansode in the bow of the boat.

The final race was the Novice Four race in which the crimson and gray rowers placed second after the entire boat managed to row in their third and final
race of the day. The WV4 finished the race at 8:27 flat, 24 seconds behind the Tars and 11 seconds faster than the Gators.

Women’s Results:
Varsity 8 +
1. Florida Tech 6:57.2
2. Rollins 7:05.6
3. Univ. of Florida 7:22.1

Novice 8+
1. Florida Tech 7:38.1
2. Florida “A” 7:50.6
3. Florida “B” 8:21.1
4. Florida “C” 8:49.3

Varsity 4+
1. Florida Tech 7:38.9
2. Rollins 7:42.8
3. Florida “A” 7:56.0
4. Florida “B” 8:58.2

Varsity 4+ DII
1. Rollins 8:06.3
2. Florida Tech 8:06.5

Novice 4+
1. Rollins 8:03.6
2. Florida Tech 8:27.0
3. Univ. of Florida 7:38.8