UVA Varsity Eight Named ACC Crew of the Week

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March 15, 2016

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Virginia’s Varsity Eight was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Crew of the Week Tuesday after defeating seven schools–including three nationally-ranked opponents–in three races at last weekend’s Oak Ridge Invitational, held on Lake Melton in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The Cavaliers, who are ranked fourth nationally this week, recorded a time of 6:22.99 in defeating No. 11 Michigan, Clemson and UCF in their first race of the weekend on Saturday morning.

Virginia then came back to post an impressive time of 6:07.845 with the help of a slight current in defeating No. 17 Notre Dame, Michigan State and Kansas on Saturday afternoon.

Finally, the UVA V8 crew posted a 6:29.454 time in defeating No. 20 Louisville, Clemson and Oklahoma on Sunday morning.

The Virginia First Varsity Eight is composed of Coxswain Colette Lucas-Conwell (Palo Alto, Calif.); Stroke Mackenzi Sherman (Los Alamitos, Calif.); Seven-seat Tessa Dikkers (Pelham, N.Y.); Six-seat Georgia Ratcliff (Falls Church, Va.); Five-seat Eliza Spilsbury (Centreville, Mass.); Four-seat Erin Briggs (Orono, Minn.); Three-seat Heidi Long (Buckinghamshire, England); Two-seat Alice Darry (West Melton, New Zealand) and Bow Sam Casto (Dallas, Pa.). Maxime Lubbers (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) was the four-seat for UVA on Sunday.

UVA’s Varsity Eight crew was chosen over North Carolina’s First Varsity Eight, which posted a time of 7:03.65 in defeating George Mason by almost nine seconds in a dual meet Saturday on Lake Lure.

Virginia hosts Yale on Sunday, March 20 on the Rivanna River in Earlysville, Va.