DeLAND, Fla. - The Nova Southeastern women's rowing team competed in its final race of the fall season, the Hatter Invitational on Saturday against Sunshine State Conference foes Barry, Embry-Riddle, as well as Division I opponents Jacksonville and host Stetson. 
 
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
LOCATION: Lake Beresford | DeLand, Fla.
HOST: Stetson University
 
CONDITIONS
A great day for rowing, with a mix of sun and clouds and temperatures in the low 70s.  The first 1,200 meters was protected and the last 2,000 displayed a stiff head wind.
 
RACE FORMAT

• Athletes competed in varsity eights session at 11:00 a.m., followed by the varsity fours session at 1:50 p.m., and the novice eights at 1:55 p.m.
• Each boat class competed in a 3,200m head-style piece against the clock, followed by a head-to-head 1,000m piece in flights, based on finish time from the first piece.

RESULTS 

• In the eights, NSU's A-boat of Ava Carollo, Katerina Verbraeken, Lisette Villarreal, Ayelen Vegas, Mikayla Switzer, Emily Stewart, Marnie Mclean, Perrine Sarraute, and Ariel Mcaffrey finished fourth, two seconds ahead of rival Embry-Riddle. Nova Southeastern. The Sharks only missed out on a top-three finish by nine seconds and finished 31 seconds behind first-place Barry.
• The B-boat (Kierra Bukaty, Gabrielle Orr, Barbara Sansur, Samantha Burgess, Jessica Cavalier, Samantha Loriot, Emma Brownawell, and Madison Mello) finished in seventh place, ahead of all B-boats other than DI Jacksonville. NSU's B-boat finished ahead of conference foe Embry-Riddle by 55 seconds and ended up in front of Barry by over one minute.
• In the fours, Nova Southeastern was the only school to have all three boats finish in the top 10. NSU's boats finished in consecutive order as the A-boat (Maydelissa Pinell, Villarreal, Stewart, Sarraute, Mclean, finished sixth, the B-boat (Rayna Stuart, Katerina Verbraeken, Ariel Mcaffrey, Ayelen Vegas and Mikayla Switzer) seventh and the C-boat (Carollo, Cavalier, Loriot, Sansur and Gabrielle Orr) eighth.
• The last boat to race was NSU's novice eights, placing third and finishing just 23 seconds behind top-finishing Jacksonville.

 
BEYOND THE RESULTS WITH COACH DEVIN FAY 

• "The focus was the eights going into the weekend, and as a team we really wanted to see how we could stack up with some of the better programs in Florida," head coach Fey said.
• "Overall, I thought we did very well," Fey said. "I was really impressed with our second varsity boat and their performance finishing within 10 seconds of our A-boat. We still have some speed to gain to be competitive at the top end, but we know that and we are building a deep team that are ready to step up this winter training cycle and find people who are willing to take it to the next level."
• "We have prepared well," Fey added. "Going into the next three weeks, we are going to intrasquad a lot and create that competitive and fun environment. We are excited to hit it hard come January and see where this group of competitive women can take the NSU's rowing future."

 
UP NEXT

With the fall schedule in the books, NSU will continue training through mid-November and will not see racing action again until scrimmages against SSC competitors in January.