SARASOTA, Fla.- The Ithaca College women's crew team danced their way to Sarasota, Florida to compete in the NCAA DIII Rowing Championship. The team secured their place in the competition on May 8 at the NIRC in Worcester, Massachusetts, where the 1V took gold and the 2V won the petite final, taking seventh place overall
 
The team has been training since the end of classes on the Cayuga Inlet and made the trip down south on Tuesday. There, the crews were able to see some practice time on the famous Nathan Benderson Park course. 
 
The DIII Championship features two days of racing with heats and repechage taking place on Friday and finals and championships on Saturday. The heats were pre-determined during the NCAA selection show. 
 
Ithaca's first varsity lineup landed in heat A, alongside Tufts, WPI, and St. Mary's.  The second varsity crew for the Bombers was also in heat A for their event with Bates, Tufts, and Pacific Lutheran. 
 
This weekend's lineups for the Bombers, set by Head Coach Becky Robinson, were as follows:
 
For the 1V, 
Coxswain Michelle Hyland, Allison Arndt, Dania Bogdanovic, Laura Trainor, Taylor Volmrich, Izzy Ozkurt, Madelyn Farber, Devi de Oliveira, and Eliza Worth.
 
For the 2V, 
Coxswain Carlie Wohlfahrt, Karley Whalen, Erika Elcsisin, Emma Hammel, Brenna Hanratty, Erin Trojan, Glenn Hartley, Edie McRoberts, and Emily Lighthall. 
 
In addition to the two crews, IC also took three spare student athletes who have been training alongside both crews. Those student-athletes included, Coxswain Holly Rybnick, Katrina Pohlman, and Paige Pimental
 
At the NCAA DIII Rowing Championship, all crews race in an initial heat. From there, based off performance, the top two boats qualify directly for the grand final where the remaining boats must race again today to determine their seating for Saturday's finals.
 
On Friday, the first race of the day for the Bombers was the 2V. Ithaca finished second, with a final time of 6:57.01 behind Bates who went 6:54.6. 
 
Bates held a lead for a majority of the race with IC only 1.7 second behind at the 1000m mark. Throughout the race, IC was able to maintain a slight lead over Tufts, ultimately overtaking them and gaining open water at 1250m. The Bombers beat out the third place Tufts boat by about 10 seconds. 
 
Next up was the 1V. The Bombers top boat finished in second place behind WPI. The crew's times were 6:41.63 and 6:41.57, respectively. 
 
Ithaca pulled out to a hot start taking about a seat and a half lead 250m into the race. The Bombers maintained their lead throughout the majority of the race. At the halfway mark, IC had a half boat lead on WPI, until the 500m mark where WPI would pull even. WPI capitalized during their sprint taking down IC by only about .06 seconds. 
 
By taking second place in both events, both boats have automatically qualified for tomorrow's grand final. Both crews will find out who they are racing later today, following the repechage. The 1V knows they will face off against Bates and Wellesley based on the second heat while the 2V knows they will be seeing Wellesley and Williams. 
 
For reference, the grand final will feature places one through six with the petite final will featuring places seven and eight.
 
The Bombers will rest up for another intense day of racing tomorrow morning in hopes of continuing their success. The Bombers 2V will race first, at 10:48 a.m. with the 1V set to go just after at 11:12 a.m.