Nov. 5, 2000

Hear Furtek on the weekend's racing

GAINESVILLE, Ga.-The University of North Carolina rowing team followed up a strong performance in Saturday's Head of the Chattahoochee regatta with another successful day on Lake Lanier Sunday in the Chattahoochee Chase. Against a smaller field and under sunny skies-which were in stark contrast to Saturday's wet weather-the Tar Heels won the championship four (20:20.5) and finished second in the championship eight (17:33.7).

"This is the fourth time we've come down to this two-day regatta and this is the first time we've met all the goals I had set for us, in terms of aggressiveness and racing well and faring well in the results," Tar Heel coach Joel Furtek said. "I'm very proud of our athletes and the way they answered my challenges. I was pleased with the way they came together in the boats, some of which had very few rows together and some of which had none at all, and responded well as a team. It was an outstanding weekend."

For the second day, UNC's varsity eight was behind Texas, which finished in 16:54.3. "It was a good, hard race," Furtek said. "We went with a different lineup that didn't fire quite as beautifully as yesterday's. Looking back on today's race, there are some little things we can fix that will show us a lot more speed."

UNC finishes its fall season on Sunday at the Rivanna Romp in Charlottesville, Va. The competition is hosted by Virginia and all four Atlantic Coast Conference rowing teams will participate.