The Men's Varsity 8 traveled to Oak Ridge, TN this weekend to race in a competitive field of twenty crews representing eleven different states.

Racing started Saturday morning with the top three finishers from the heats moving on to the afternoon semi-finals. The Bruins and Marietta quickly jumped out and lead the field to the 1000 meter mark when Marietta made a big move to take a six seat lead. "When they moved we took a counter 10 but didn't move back on them. At that point we were easily in qualifying position so I lengthened the crew out and saved it for the semis," coxswain Sarah Koff. Marietta was first in 6:03.9, followed by UCLA 6:09.6 and Texas 6:17.3. Virginia and Temple won the other two heats.

From the heat results it looked like there were four crews in each semi-final that would be fighting for the three qualifying spots. The Bruins jumped out with the leaders, Temple and Purdue as all three crew were level at the 1000 meter mark. "We knew we needed to be ahead of Jacksonville to qualify and once we established that we went after Purdue and Temple," 7-seat Dylan Matteson. Temple pressed ahead of the field in the third 500 as Purdue and UCLA battled for the last two qualifying spots. Temple won in a time of 6:04.7 with Purdue, 6:07.5 and UCLA, 6:08.0. Virginia, Marietta and Florida Tech qualified from the first semi.

Sunday brought more beautiful racing conditions and set up a Grand Final in which all six crews had a shot at a medal. "It was obvious that Virginia, seated 1st, was the favorite but after that it was going to be very competitive for medals," Head Coach Paul Mokha. The Bruins went for it, Virginia and UCLA held a 2 seat lead on the field for the first 900 meters with no more than 6 seats separating the field. "We were determined and focused, said 6-seat Brad Stapleton. We wanted to take on the challenge of this competitive field and I think we accomplished that."

As the crews approached the 1000 meter mark, Virginia began to take control as Temple moved into second pressing the Cavaliers. Virginia and Temple continued to move away from the field in the third 500 meters with Purdue moving into third, six seats up on the Bruins. "Purdue was close, we had moved well on them in the last 500 meters of the semis and knew we had a shot at a medal," bow Zander Bice.

Purdue was able to hold the Bruins final push as Virginia was the winner (5:57.6), with Temple second (6:00.2), followed by Purdue (6:03.3), UCLA (6:05.4), Marietta (6:06.8) and Florida Tech (6:09.8). "I thought the guys approached this weekend's challenges well and got faster each race, said Head Coach Paul Mokha, Traveling across the country and racing three times in two days against some very good crews is tough. I thought winning a medal would be a great accomplishment, we came up just a little short."

"This was a great experience. It is and excellent place to race and very competitive. We learned a lot through the progression of the regatta and are better for having raced here,"4-seat Kristian Kanya.