UNC women's rowing places ninth in ACC Championships

The North Carolina women's rowing team finished off the 2015-16 season over the weekend at the ACC Championships at Lake Hartwell in Clemson, S.C. The Tar Heels finished the two-day event in ninth place, last among participating teams. 

What happened?

At the preliminaries Friday, North Carolina earned one fifth place finish — in the first varsity eight — and four fourth place finishes — in the second varsity eight, third varsity eight, first varsity four and second varsity four — in five events. 

The finals went a little better for the Tar Heels, as they were able to win the second varsity four petite final over Miami by a little less than five seconds. 

In the first varsity eight petite, second varsity eight petite, first varsity four petite and third varsity eight petite, North Carolina placed third, third, second and second, respectively. 

While UNC's performance over the two day stretch netted them last place in the Championships, Coach Sarah Haney was still able to take some positives away from the weekend.

"Last year Boston College beat us by 17 seconds in one event and then that same event this year was four seconds," she said. "We're definitely moving in the right direction, and we're gonna keep pursuing that. Those are the hidden things that we as coaches and teams see that most people probably don't see from the outside and just look at the placement during the regatta."

Who stood out? 

Senior Chelsea Gustafson was named a Second Team All-ACC honoree after the races this weekend. She was the only Tar Heel named to an All-ACC team. 

But for Haney, what caught her eye was the way the team willingness of the team to give everything it had down the stretch, not its performance at the conference championships. 

"Their flexibility, their adaptability, their attitude toward being a team, being more important than their individual performance, that to me stood out," Haney said. "We saw that just as a collective effort this weekend. When one boat finished racing, they immediately asked or ran back to watch racing for the other team and the other boat. It's just that team camaraderie that has really positively driven us this year and has made us jump forward in a lot of positive ways."

When was it decided?

Because of North Carolina's performance in the qualifying heats on Friday, the team was not able to compete in the grand finals on Saturday, and thus not able to place higher overall.

Why does it matter? 

Even with the performance at the ACC Championships, North Carolina still has a lot to look forward to in the upcoming seasons. The team is relatively young, as 21 of the team's 29 varsity members are either sophomores or juniors.

Haney is excited about the future of the program, and she said she has seen the same thing from her team. 

"They want to keep driving forward," she said. "Each year, you need to just try to close the gap on people that have beaten you, open the gap on people that you have beaten ... And they really bought into that, they really understand that and I think they're going to put in the work this summer to make that happen."

Where do they play next?

The ACC Championships were the last races of the season for North Carolina. The team will open the 2016-17 season in the fall.

@jbo_vernon

sports@dailytarheel.com