Nov. 6, 2011

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The Alabama Rowing team wrapped up its fall season Sunday with a solid showing at the Head of the Hooch Regatta, where head coach Larry Davis' squad picked things up on day two with three top-10 finishes.

"Overall, we performed better today than we did yesterday," Davis said. "Not that we had a bad day on Saturday, but we made some adjustments today that allowed us to row a little more consistently, especially in the varsity boats. We weren't as aggressive as we needed to be on Saturday, and we were able to turn that around today."

On Sunday, Alabama's "A" boat finished fourth in the Women's Open 8+ race with a time of 17:01.3, just six seconds out of second place. Texas came away with the win, crossing the line at 16:44.4. The Crimson Tide's "B" boat finished seventh while the "C" boat was 10th, with times of 17:12.8 and 17:49.1 respectively. Alabama's fourth boat, made up strictly of novice rowers, finished 29th in the race after incurring a 20-second penalty after missing two buoys on the course.

"Three of our crews earned top-10 finishes today and one of those crews was made up of a mix between our varsity and novice athletes, and we were very pleased with how they performed, taking 10th place," Davis said. "Overall we were able to beat some people who had beaten us the day before, and we were really pleased with that."

On Saturday, the Tide was third and 26th in the Novice 8+ race, crossing the line at 18:03.2 and 20:12.9 respectively. Alabama's "A" Varsity 4+ finished ninth with a time of 18:22, as well as 16th with a time of 18:49.2 in the Women's Championship 4+ race. The Tide was 13th and 15th respectively in the Women's Championship 8+ event, turning in times of 16:49.3 and 17:02.9.

"From Saturday to Sunday, we were able to shave off a fair amount of time, finishing much closer to Texas, among others," Davis said. "I think today showed our ladies that we have to bring our `A' race every day and I think it also showed that our `A' race is pretty good."

Alabama's "A" Varsity 8+ boat was 45 seconds behind Texas on Saturday. The Tide was able to cut that margin to 16 seconds on Sunday.