UNC women's rowing places two boats in a final at Knecht Cup

With the ACC Championships looming within the month, the North Carolina women’s rowing team got a chance to measure itself against some of the top competition in the country this weekend.

At the Knecht Cup held at Cooper River in Camden, N.J., UNC placed two boats in a final round.

The varsity four boat placed fifth in the third final, while the second varsity eight placed sixth in the petite final.

The Tar Heels’ top boat, the varsity eight, didn’t make it out of the preliminary rounds, coming up less than a second short of making the semifinals.

“I felt really good about what everybody did,” said coach Sarah Haney, who has coached at UNC since 2002. “Even the boats that did not advance had a great race. They were just in a tough heat and had a great race and beat people we don’t normally beat.”

But senior Jasmine Dennis was a little tougher on herself and the team.

“It’s not exactly what we were hoping for, but it was a good experience,” Dennis said.

Haney said she was glad to see one of UNC’s top conference opponents, Boston College, at the competition.

“It was great to see Boston College a month before the conference tournament,” Haney said. “They’re showing some speed right now. We’ll go back and do what we can for the next four weeks and race them again at the ACCs.”

Senior captain Alex McClelland also said facing Boston College before the ACC Championships is beneficial.

“We have to focus on a lot of small technical things such as perfecting our rowing together,” she said.

Dennis said she thinks the ACC Championships will be a tough test for the Tar Heels. In addition to Boston College, UNC will face Virginia, which has won the national championship two of the past three years and is the reigning ACC champion.

“We’re not as strong of a program as Virginia or Clemson, who have a lot more money,” Dennis said. “We have to learn to race everyone else. We’re very young, so we have to learn where our strengths are on the team.”

But McClelland said she feels good about the team’s current performance and preparation for the ACC Championships.

“At this point, we’re all getting faster by every race and haven’t had any backsliding,” McClelland said. “We don’t think we’ve peaked yet, and that’s really important — to peak at the right time of the season.”

The Knecht Cup was the last regular-season race of Dennis’ and McClelland’s careers.

“I just hope as seniors we left enough to build off of,” Dennis said. “It’s a building process because of where our program has been.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.