Crew excels at Head of Hooch

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by Tony Tran

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After overcoming some trouble getting there, the team turned in its finest performance at this meet. The highlight of the day's racing was Rice's first-ever gold medal.

The women's experienced four team of Sarah Newton, Shannon Moore, Meghan Palochak and coxswain Jila Bakker defeated 27 other teams to capture first place.

In the men's experienced eight race, Adam Cohen served as coxswain as Justin Gillingsrud, Herman Yue, Brian Harms, Jimmy Bennett, Tim Grogean, Craig Muirhead, Jason Kincaid and Joe Goetz roared past five boats in the staggered start race.

Team captain Cohen was pleased with the results of the regatta.

"As a team, Rice crew did the best they have ever done," he said. "The keys to the success of the experienced men's eight and the experienced women's four were team unity, spirit and motivation."

In other races, the women's experienced eight finished 14th out of 28 teams. The men's novice four overcame difficulties with their skeg to finish 13th of 29 teams.

The women's novice four took 11th, overcoming the fact that this was only the second time they had rowed a four.

The men's novice eights was 21st out of 32 teams while the women's novice eights was 27th out of 39.

"Our novices traditionally have trouble in the fall season, but this year's novices show great promise," Cohen said.

This year, Rice took 45 members to the regatta, its largest contingent ever.

In the first regatta of the season, Rice had its ups and downs as it competed in the Head of the Colorado in Austin.

The women's open four captured its race, beating Texas by almost 30 seconds, but for the most part the teams did not finish in the upper half of its races.

"The problem with this regatta is that we just weren't up to par," Cohen said. "We could have done better, but it just wasn't in the cards."

The last regatta of the fall takes place this weekend as the team travels to Natchitoches, La., to compete in a Marathon race.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the November 10, 1995 issue.

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