April 16, 2005
Notre Dame, Ind. -
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NOTRE DAME HOSTS CINCINNATI :
Notre Dame will host Cincinnati in the only home regatta of the spring season on Sunday, April 17 beginning at 7:00 a.m. on the St. Joseph's River in South Bend ... Rowers will compete in six races.
THE SCHEDULE:
Lineups and schedule still to be determined.
MICHIGAN STATE REGATTA CANCELLED:
Notre Dame's regatta on Tuesday, April 12 was cancelled due to high winds at the race site in East Lansing. Mich.
SEVEN YEARS YOUNG:
The Notre Dame program is in its seventh season of competition at the varsity level ... It was granted varsity status in 1996 and then competed in its first regatta in the fall of 1998 ... The Irish claimed the BIG EAST Rowing Challenge title in 2004 after three consecutive runner-up finishes ... The Irish varsity eight crew also earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Championships for the second time in school history and placed 11th ... Notre Dame also was 16th in the final US Rowing/CRCA poll.
HEAD COACH Martin Stone:
Martin Stone has been the only coach the Notre Dame rowing program has known ... He was named head coach on October 29, 1997 after five years as head coach at the United States Naval Academy ... Stone has guided the Irish varsity eight to two NCAA appearances -- 2002 (finished 16th) and 2004 (finished 11th) ... Last season, he was selected BIG EAST Coach of the Year after leading the Irish to their first-ever team title at the 2004 BIG EAST Rowing Challenge.
THE CAPTAINS:
Senior coxswain Maureen Gibbons (Langhorne, Pa.) and senior stroke Meredith Thornburgh (Indianapolis, Ind.) will serve as captains for the 2004-05 campaign ... Gibbons was a member of the Irish varsity eight crew which won the BIG EAST title and earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Championships in 2004 ... Thornburgh rowed in the first varsity four boat that won the gold medal in that event last season.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Freshman Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.) was a member of the United States Rowing Junior National Team in the summer of 2004 that competed at the FISA Senior and Junior World Rowing Championships in Banyoles, Spain ... She was a member of the junior women's eight crew that won the B final to earn a seventh-place finish overall in the event.
IRISH AND CINCINNATI WILL MEET NEXT YEAR IN BIG EAST REGATTA:
The 2005-06 season will mark Cincinnati's entrance into the BIG EAST Conference ... The Bearcats will take part in the 2006 BIG EAST Championships next season.
NEXT UP FOR THE IRISH:
Notre Dame will row in a pair of events next weekend ... On Saturday, April 23, Notre Dame will face Harvard and Yale in Boston, Mass. ... The following day, on Sunday, April 24, the Irish will look to defend their BIG EAST crown at the 2005 BIG EAST Championships in Worcester, Mass. ... At last year's championships, the Irish tied a meet record by winning four of five races to claim their first-ever crown.
