Oct. 14, 2007

OCCOQUAN, Va. - The North Carolina rowing team hit the water for its first official competition of the fall Sunday at the Occoquan Chase. In an afternoon of racing on the Occoquan River, the Tar Heels took first in three of the six events they entered.

"I'm really proud of the team," UNC coach Sarah Haney said. "We had a lot of people step up and race in small boats that they haven't had very much practice in, so we definitely commend them for going out and taking that chance and being successful. A lot of people raced two and even three times today, so they had to keep attacking race after race and being competitive."

UNC won the open women's eight in a time of 16:15.6 with a lineup of Shannon Wilson (coxswain), Lisy McIntee, Megan McMullin, Katie Wood, Ruby Woodside, Whitney Hileman, Kelsey Grich, Cara Van Dorn, and Audrey Mosley. A Tar Heel boat also took sixth in that race in a time of 16:47.1 with a lineup of Paige Wall (coxswain), Andrea McGovern, Diane Reynolds, Lindley Barrow, Carly Dressler, JoAnne Rogers, Eugenia Delbono, Andi Drabot and Kasey Munson.

In the novice four event, UNC took first in a time of 18:51.0, followed by Old Dominion and American. The lineup for Carolina was Sarah Nolan (coxswain), McGovern, Grich, Kristi Roblin and Mosley.

UNC took second, fifth and eighth in the open four event. The lineup of Amy Dement (coxswain), McIntee, McMullin, Hileman and Reynolds led the way for UNC in a time of 18:09.0. The fifth-place boat finished in 18:34.1 with a lineup of Wilson (coxswain), Munson, Barrow, Drabot and Rogers. In eighth in 18:54.0 was the lineup of Wall (coxswain), Kathryn Winz, Emily Schultz, Chandler Sours and Molly Jones.

Carolina took second and third in the open pairs, with McMullin and McIntee finishing in 18:30.2 and Woodside and Wood in 21:35.2.

Two Tar Heels rowed in singles. McGovern finished third in the open event in 21:52.9. In the novice singles, Van Dorn finished first in 21:47.4.

"We just wanted to go out and get down the race course as many times as possible and kind of see what we've got," Haney said. "We feel really good about where we are right now and what we're doing and how that's producing boat speed."

Next up for the Tar Heels is the Head of the Chattahoochee Regatta Nov. 3-4 in Chattanooga, Tenn.