Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Rowing Announces 2011 Schedule
1/25/2011 7:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
Jan. 25, 2011
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Fifteenth-year Bucknell women's rowing head coach Stephen Kish announced the 2011 Bison schedule on Tuesday. Bucknell's campaign begins March 26 with the Murphy Cup, the first of the team's two trips to the Schuylkill River this year. Highlighting the slate, as always, is the Patriot League Championships in late April, where Bucknell will be going for its sixth consecutive title. For the lightweights, the season-ending IRA National Championship Regatta will remain circled on the calendar.
The Bison have the opportunity to continue recent successes at the Murphy Cup, Patriot League Championships and IRA Regatta in 2011, while also adding new opponents (Columbia, Iowa) and locations (vs. Radcliffe on the Charles River) to the schedule.
Additionally, 2010 NCAA participant Ohio State and Duke return to the slate, and Bucknell will send its entire team to the Dad Vail Regatta for the first time since 2006.
The Bison have earned the Overall Points Trophy at the Murphy Cup each of the last four years and they will attempt to start the season on a high note by challenging for a fifth straight title when they travel to Philadelphia the final weekend in March.
The busiest month of the season gets underway the following weekend. On April 2, the majority of the Bison squad will head to the Orchard Beach Lagoon in New Rochelle, N.Y., to take on Columbia, while the lightweights will face Princeton on the Tigers' home course, Carnegie Lake. Overall, Bucknell will race eight times in April.
The lightweights will again be in action April 9-10 at the Knecht Cup, an event the Bison varsity eight won in 2008.
The openweights will have their own competition April 9 when they travel to Columbus, Ohio, to face perennial NCAA participant Ohio State, Indiana, Rhode Island and Louisville on the Griggs Reservoir. Bucknell last raced at that location in 2009 when it took on strong competition in Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State, which were each ranked nationally at the time.
The Bison's lone home weekend on the Susquehanna will take place in mid-April when they host Patriot League foe Colgate, Delaware, Old Dominion and Robert Morris.
Bucknell will then head to New England for the weekend of April 23-24. The Bison will take on Radcliffe and the Princeton Lightweights on the Charles River in Boston, Mass., on Saturday before going for their sixth consecutive Patriot League title Sunday on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. The Patriot League Championships are returning to their original location after taking place on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, N.J., the last three years.
New opponents and events highlight the next weekend's (April 30-May 1) schedule. Four of Bucknell's boats, including the varsity eight, will row against first-time opponent Iowa and Duke in Ithaca, N.Y., on the Saturday, while the remaining crews will race at the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships in Fairfax, Va., on the Sunday. It will be the first time in recent memory the Bison will compete at the event.
Bucknell returns to the Dad Vail Regatta May 13-14. Bison boats last competed at the historic event in 2009, and the lightweight eight captured a gold medal.
The lightweight eight will then conclude the 2011 season at the IRA National Championship Regatta June 3-4. The Bison have had plenty of success at the IRA Regatta in recent years with the lightweight eight finishing sixth in 2006, first in 2007, fourth in 2008 and second in 2009. The victory in 2007 marked the only national championship in school history. Last year the lightweight four placed third in its first appearance at the IRA Regatta.
