During a sunny Saturday afternoon at Lake Lemon, IU took first place in the all three scored races of the Dale England Cup, scoring 54 point total. The teams won against Michigan State and Minnesota to win the trophy for the fourth time in a row.
The Novice 8, First Varsity 4, Second Varsity 8 and Varsity 8 teams all finished in first place. The Second Varsity 4 team took second place just shortly behind Michigan State.
Head coach Steve Peterson said he was very happy about how the races went and thinks the team is in a good position to take on the Big Ten in the conference championships.
“We tried to use this to set up and establish a race plan like this, okay, this is our last dry run on it and I think we executed well,” Peterson said.
According to Abby Bogovich, a graduate student on the Varsity team, the event in past years was known to be accompanied by windy and rainy weather, however, this year the event was warm and didn't have any rain.
Bogovich said she was excited to race in the nicer weather to see how the team's time would improve.
“That is very rare for a Dale England, but a little wind in the middle thousand was no surprise,” Bogovich said. “It is the spirit of Dale England.”
Bogovich said she thinks this race has prepared the team well for the Big Ten Conference. She said she thinks the team was able to use the Dale England Cup win to make a plan for the conference championships.
“We really used this because it is not the last time we are going to see the crews this season to try going higher and execute a race plan.” Bogovich said.
The Hoosiers will head to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championships on May 16.
