DAY TWO
 

SARASOTA, Fla. – The No. 7 Nova Southeastern University rowing team had a strong finish at the 2017 FIRA Championships held at Nate Benderson Park in Sarasota, Fla. this Saturday afternoon, grabbing the team championship title and seeing six of the eight boats competing finish in the Top 3.
 
NSU's championship title is the first the Sharks have earned since 2013.
 
The morning started with the varsity eight event, where the Sharks grabbed fourth place with a time of 7:02.0, two seconds behind the Barry boat that took third.
 
The next event, the junior varsity eight boat, comprised of stroke Carlie Morley, Kierra Bukaty, Gabrilla Lopez, Jessica Cavalier, Mikayla Shelton, Mikayla Switzer, bow Lisette Villarreal and coxswain Maydelissa Pinell earned second place with their time of 7:22.3.
 
NSU's only top finisher was the double boat of Rayna Stuart and Ariel McAffrey, who earned first-place with a time of 8:21.6, 5.5 seconds faster than the Stetson boat, who finished in second.
 
The novice eight boat took second place in their event with a time of 7:31.2. In that boat was stroke Ayelen Vegas, Ariel McAffrey, Samantha Burgess, Gabrielle Orr, Abbey DiMatteo, Malea Terry, Sabrina Labrosse, bow Jenny Jaegal and coxswain Katherine Godwin.
 
Both the Div. II four and the lightweight four each earned third-place finishes in their events, finishing in 8:04.5 and 8:27.9, respectively. In the DII four boat was stroke Morley, Lopez, Kamaye Nichols, bow Samantha Loriot and coxswain Hannah DiLorenzo. In the lightweight four was stroke Villareal, Terry, Jaegal, bow Labrosse and at coxswain was Pinell.
 
The Sharks novice four boat, made up of stoke Butaky, Burgess, DiMatteo, bow Cavalier and coxswain Godwin, was able to grab third place as well, crossing the finish line in 8:17.3.
 
The final event of the day, the varsity four boat, saw NSU take third with a total time of 7:49.3. In that boat was Bethany Warlich at stroke, Danica Buse, Cassilly Lobaugh, Nicole Baliszewski at the bow and DiLorenzo as coxswain.
 
"We had some really great results today, but the big thing is our bottom end showed that they really developed a love of rowing, training and competing," boasted head coach Devin Fay. "Also, on the other end, teams like UCO and FIT showed us where exactly we stand compared to them at the top-end speed of Division II. We have a little speed to gain if we'd like to be there come May."

The Sharks will head back out on the water next weekend in Princeton, N.J. for the Knect Cup. The first races will begin on Saturday, Apr. 8.

DAY ONE

SARASOTA, Fla. – The No. 7 Nova Southeastern University rowing team began competition in the FIRA Championships this Friday afternoon, with five different boats racing in different events. Out of the five boats, all will be competing in the grand finales on Saturday morning.

"We are pleased that we advanced boats to the finals in every event we raced today," explained assistant coach Anna Lindgren-Streicher. "We got our first look at FIT, who has shown good, early-season speed, in today's heats. Tomorrow we get the opportunity to line up against FIT, UCO and Barry, all of our big regional rivals. Looking foward to a fast day of racing!"
 
The first event the Sharks were in was the varsity eight race, where the boat consisting of Cassilly Lobaugh, Ariel McAffrey, bow Nicole Baliszewski, Marnie McLean, Ayelen Vegas, Rayna Stuart, Danica Buse, stroke Bethany Warlich and coxswain Victoria Porretti, grabbed second place.
 
The next two events, both pair boats, saw NSU take third place in both races. The first pair, Lisette Villareal and Mikayla Switzer, finished in 8:26.3 while Jessica Cavalier and Julianna Jaycox passed the finish line in 9:07.63.
 
NSU's novice four boat made up of stroke Kierra Bukaty, Samantha Burgess, Abbey DiMatteo, bow Cavalier and coxswain Katherine Godwin, took second place with a time of 8:19.6.
 
The final race of the day for the Sharks was the varsity four, where NSU finished in 7:40.3 just three seconds behind the first-place boat. The four boat includes stroke Warlich, Buse, Lobaugh, bow Baliszewski and coxswain Hannah DiLorenzo.
 
The second day of the FIRA Championships will begin tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. For live updates, follow @FIRARowing and @NSU_Rowing on Twitter.