Florida Tech Men’s Rowing Takes Gold At SIRA Championships, Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta Up Next
By Florida Tech // April 18, 2016
victorious in the men’s varsity eight, junior varsity eight and double
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Florida Tech entered a crew in three events at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships and all three captured a gold medal on Sunday at the Melton Lake Rowing Venue.
The Panthers were victorious in the men’s varsity eight, junior varsity eight and double.
“It was a really good day,” head coach Jim Granger said.
“We’re in a good position as a team moving forward. We now have a basepoint to compare ourselves to. Overall, this is the best performance at a SIRA Championship that we’ve had in a really long time. We’re pretty pumped and excited to get back to work this week.”
The day began with stroke Alex Eierle and bow Batuhan Cakici winning the doubles final by nearly four seconds at 7:30.85. Stetson ‘A’ was second at 7:34.62, and Notre Dame ‘A’ rounded out the top three in the six-crew final at 7:45.38.
With one win under the team’s belt, the junior varsity eight of coxswain Corine Roberts, stroke Joe Horn, Martynas Mickus, Kristjan Markovc, John Puzz, Marko Milovanovic, Chris Field, Carson Green and bow Nate Hodge beat Temple ‘A’ by 4.29 seconds for first place.
The crew’s time was 6:00.79. Temple, meanwhile, just nipped Virginia at the finish line by 59-hundreths of a second for the runner-up spot at 6:05.08.
Looking to complete a sweep in the three events it entered, FIT did just that in the varsity eight. The Panthers, ranked No. 20 in the latest USRowing Collegiate Poll, posted the only sub six-minute time of 5:57.32 in the final. Temple ‘A’ was once again second at 6:00.28. Oklahoma City ‘A’ was third at 6:02.21.
By coxswain Aaron Evans, stroke Nikola Selakovic, Andy Konecny, Josip Bobinac, Matas Lukosevicius, Woody Sandhu, Ljubo Gavric, Phillip Machen and bow Kevin Coyle securing a gold medal, the Panthers’ varsity eight has now won six of the last eight SIRA Championships and two in a row.
Moving forward, the Panthers know they need to continue working hard as they now prepare for the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta, set for May 13-14 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The varsity eight will enter the race as the defending champion.
“We can improve a little bit of everything,” Granger said.
“We sort of struggled to hit a groove in the varsity eight. We fixed it for the finals race. We can’t worry about getting a lead and maintaining it. We need to row our race.”
