HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women's rowing team completed its first regatta of the inaugural season on Sunday afternoon at the High Point Autumn Rowing Festival at Oak Hollow Lake.
 
Head Coach Jessica Deitrick: "I'm proud of this team for doing really well for our first event out here. It's been building for me for two years. I've been recruiting and trying to get this program together. It was a lot of fun getting to race against some other crews and to see where we stand this early in the season. But I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief. This is where we're at and we're excited to continue to build and gain more speed as we go through, not only the fall but into the spring season too. I knew our speed just relative to ourselves, but to be able to go against Duke, Old Dominion, Oxford, and Ukraine and compare where we are with the other collegiate teams was great. The fact that we had tight margins with some well experienced collegiate program is a really great starting point for us today."
 
High Point had boats in four different races throughout the day. Starting at 10:30 a.m. as the Panthers went up against Old Dominion and Oxford. HPU started off hot as its managed to grab a lead before running out of steam in the final stretch as Oxford came out on top with a time of 16:54, but HPU was not far behind scoring a time of 17:06. The second varsity boat that started right behind the first varsity boat, rowed to a 18:04 pace to cap off the first race for HPU.
 
The Panthers sent out a Novice 8 boat at 12:50 p.m. that recorded a 21:45 time on the course placing second, right behind the William & Mary club team who placed with a 21:01.
 
The afternoon saw HPU row side-by-side with Ukraine and Old Dominion. High Point battled it out with ODU till the very end as the Panthers were nine tenths of a second behind the Big Blue with 11:34 on the clock. The second varsity boat for HPU recorded a 12:13 to complete that race. 
 
In the 300m dash, High Point had two boats lined up against Duke, Old Dominion, and Ukraine in a sprint to the finish line. Ukraine took first place as both Blue Devil boats took second and third. The Panthers finished in the middle of the pack as they concluded their first regatta in school history.
 
Deitrick saw a lot of things to be proud of this afternoon as she saw her team in competition for the first time since welcoming the inaugural squad on campus just over a month ago.
 
Up Next: High Point will race in the Head of the Occoquan on Saturday, November 2. This race is hosted by the Occoquan Boat Club in Fairfax Station, Virginia.