Temple won seven of its nine events at the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta on Sunday in Mercer, New Jersey.
The freshman boats won all four flights they competed in. Temple’s “A” and “B” boats both finished first in Freshman 8 races, with the Temple “B” boat putting up a time of 6:00:60, the best time of any eight-person boat.
The Owls’ “A” and “B” boats both won their respective Freshman 4 flights as well. This time it was Temple’s “A” boat that performed best with a time of 7:07:14.
Coach Brian Perkins has a lot of athletes with little experience at the college level. He said that this year’s freshman group is the largest recruiting class Temple has ever had and is larger than the entire roster three years ago.
“We got our butts kicked in all the early fall races,” Perkins said. “We just got beat up in the early fall races, and the reason was because we have a lot of new guys. As a matter of strategy our entire staff, held the guys back, taught them to row the Temple style of rowing, and infused culture. Reward certain things, punish other things, bring the guys in line.”
“It’s nice to win races, it’s great to improve, but whatever we do in the fall is just a sign of things to come,” he added.
The veterans on the team also performed well. Temple’s Varsity 8 “A” boat finished first in its flight with a time of 6:01:16. Temple’s “B” boat finished second in its event, about two seconds behind Binghamton University.
Temple’s two boats were the only ones that competed in the Lightweight 8 event. Temple’s “B” boat ended up edging out the “A” boat by less than less than a second.
The Owls also excelled at the Frostbite Regatta on Saturday in West Windsor, New Jersey. Temple won seven races, including a Varsity 8 win and two Varsity 4 events.
The Owls host their annual erg-a-thon in December before their spring season.
“The 2016-2017 campaign is a rebuilding year for us.” Perkins said. “We have five seniors on the entire team. There are a lot of reasons why we shouldn’t be winning races. But the guys are the right guys and we are finding ways to win.”
Demetrius Mason can be reached at demetrius.sterling.mason@temple.edu.
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