UDMC Wins Two Events, Places 4th Overall at Dad Vails

This past weekend the lightweights and heavyweights raced together at Dad Vails to end the
spring season. The Dad Vail Regatta runs every May and serves as the championship event for UDMC.
This year was the 75th Anniversary edition of the event which is held on the Schuylkill River in
Philadelphia over two days to allot for the amount of racing that takes place. Friday afternoon was warm
and sunny with breezy headwinds and manageable water conditions. On Saturday, cloudy skies and high
winds greeted the crews, with water conditions deteriorating significantly throughout the day. Between
the two squads Delaware fielded entries in all men’s events except the men’s single.

The heavyweight squad was responsible for fielding the varsity eight, the freshman heavyweight
eight, and the freshman heavyweight four. All the heavyweight boats advanced out of heats. Both the
freshman 4 and the freshman 8 coasted through Friday heats to qualify for the Saturday morning semis.
The varsity eight on the other hand was relegated to a late afternoon rep on Friday. In this rep, the
heavies sprinted through the competition in the last 500m to secure the final qualifying spot for the
semi- finals. On Saturday morning none of the boats were able to advance out of their respective semi
–finals. The freshman four was unable to start after technical difficulties. The freshman 8 just missed a
qualifying spot losing to Michigan and the US Military Academy who would go on to finish 3 rd and 4th in
the event respectively. The varsity eight had a rough go in their Saturday morning race and was unable
to advance.

The lightweights fielded a lightweight varsity eight (1V LWT), a freshman lightweight eight
(1F LWT), a junior varsity heavyweight eight (2V LWT), a varsity heavyweight four (3V LWT), a varsity
lightweight 4 (2F LWT), and a varsity heavyweight pair (2F LWT). The varsity heavyweight 4, varsity
heavyweight pair and junior varsity heavyweight eight were unable to make it out of heats with the JV
eight clocking times better than other teams who made the final but falling victim to strict progression
rules. The lightweight 4 was able to advance to semi- finals on Saturday morning but were not able to
advance further. The freshman and varsity lightweight eights raced in fields with limited entries allowing
for a straight final race on Saturday afternoon. The freshman lightweight eight won the Brendan Lynch
Cup dominating their final and winning by open water to cap off a season in which they had a single
defeat. The varsity lightweight eight won the Thomas W. Loschiavo Trophy crossing the line 1.5s in front
of 2nd place MIT who they had lost to previously this season and 2.5s ahead of 4th place Mercyhurst who
had won the event the previous 3 years.

The wins in the freshman lightweight 8 and varsity lightweight 8 coupled with the hard work and
progression from Delaware’s other men’s entries racked up 18 team points allowing them to finish in
4th place for the Men’s Team Trophy behind Drexel, Michigan and Virginia respectively. Delaware also
finished tied for 8th in overall points (Men’s and Women’s combined) with 18 team points all of which
were contributed by the Men’s team.