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Virginia rowing’s Sarah Cowburn (Reddicth, Worcestershire, England) recently talked to VirginiaSports.com to talk about the Cavaliers winning the ACC Rowing Championship on April 21, the differences between American and English rowing and more.

Question: How was your first ACC Championship?
Cowburn:
It was really good. We went down to Clemson, South Carolina and the ‘Hoos just dominated. Our race in the first Varsity Eight was really good. We were basically leading from stroke one, just nailed our race plan and accomplished what we aimed to do.

Question: What are the biggest differences between rowing in England and in America?
Cowburn:
The main difference between England and America is everything is bigger here. The team is bigger, the equipment and facilities are really amazing and the schedule is action-packed every weekend. It’s really exciting going to all these different places racing against different teams. I think in general, the standard is much higher. You know when you go out to race, the race is generally going to be tough and you know with the top-ranked teams, it’s going to be a real battle on your hands and that’s makes for exciting racing.

Question: What is the team’s mindset going forward towards the NCAA Championships?
Cowburn:
I think the atmosphere in the team right now is really good. We’ve had some really good results over the past couple of weekends and I think in particular, my boat has really stepped up every weekend. All our minds are set on the end of the season and bringing in our goal, which we are all focused on the NCAAs and doing ourselves justice for all our efforts through the year. I think Coach (Kevin) Sauer has done it right, he’s really put forward an atmosphere of healthy competition, hard work and hopefully we will achieve our goals.

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