Florida Tech’s Varsity Four Spanks Competition

By  //  June 1, 2013

Semifinals TODAY AT 12:15 p.m

Stroke Frank Campione, Jose Gomez-Feria and Alec Bertossa (left to right) along with coxswain Jacqueline Horbert placed first in Friday's heat at the IRA Championships. Not pictured bow Carson Green. (Paul Kepinski image)
Stroke Frank Campione, Jose Gomez-Feria and Alec Bertossa (left to right) along with coxswain Jacqueline Horbert placed first in Friday’s heat at the IRA Championships. Not pictured bow Carson Green. (Paul Kepinski image)

GOLD RIVER, CALIFORNIA – Florida Tech’s varsity four picked up from where it left off at the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta three weeks ago, winning its heat at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships by 7.5 seconds Friday on Lake Natoma.

Coxswain Jacqueline Horbert, stroke Frank Campione, Jose Gomez-Feria, Alec Bertossaand bow Carson Green led the entire 2,000-meter course to finish at 6:41.97. Colgate grabbed second place at 6:49.48. Navy, Penn, Syracuse and Gonzaga finished third through sixth, in order. FIT will now race in the semifinals today at either 12:15 p.m. or 12:30 p.m. EDT. The exact time hasn’t been announced.

VARSITY EIGHT NIPPED BY SYRACUSE

Competing in the opening heat, the varsity eight went toe-to-toe with four crews ranked in the top 14 in this week’s USRowing Collegiate Poll – No. 3 Brown, No. 6 Cal, No. 11 Cornell and No. 14 Syracuse. The Panthers were nipped at the finish line by Syracuse by a mere 54-hundredth of a second for fourth place. Syracuse’s time was 5:57.33 to FIT’s 5:57.87.

The varsity eight went toe-to-toe with four crews ranked in the top 14 in this week’s USRowing Collegiate Poll. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily.com)
The varsity eight went toe-to-toe with four crews ranked in the top 14 in this week’s USRowing Collegiate Poll. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily.com)

Cal won the heat at 5:40.98. Brown finished second and Cornell snagged third. Syracuse, FIT and Gonzaga rounded out the field.

The varsity eight then raced in a repechage against No. 9 Boston, No. 13 Penn and UC San Diego. Boston led the entire way, stopping the clock at 5:54.30. Penn crossed the finish line second, FIT placed third at 6:03.20 and UC San Diego finished fourth.

The Panthers will now advance to today’s semifinals and race at either 3 p.m. or 3:15 p.m. EDT. The official time hasn’t been announced.

Racing in FIT’s varsity eight was coxswain Jessica Mellinger, stroke Ernestas Zarskis, Jonas Karalius, Mindaugas Beliauskas, Martynas Mickus, Joe Horn, Plamen Ivanov, John Martin and bow Troy Toggweiler.

Saturday’s races will be streamed live online at http://bit.ly/IRAvideo.

Live results will also be available at http://bit.ly/IRAresults.