A rainy Saturday morning did not stop the Alabama rowing team from taking care of business and sweeping Eastern Michigan, winning all 16 races. 

The fastest time of the day belonged to Alabama’s First Varsity 8+ A boat with a time of 3:41.99. 

“We had  a great crowd out here today and that was certainly a great way to start out the season,” coach Lary Davis said. “We saw some things as coaches we can definitely work on, but overall it was a really good day.” 

The closest races of the day were in the First Varsity 8+ session with all four races coming within 3 seconds of each other. 

“Throughout the week we’ve been improving on working as a boat not only as individuals, and we showed that today,” junior Makena Clark said. “We will continue working on that and prepare for SMU next week.” 

It had been a long layoff for the Crimson Tide since its last regatta was back in November, but the layoff did not seem to affect the team to much.

“It almost feels like Christmas after you wait months and months to finally race again,” said junior Keilani Hamann. “It’s just nice to race again and see what you have been working toward over the last 2-3 months and come out here and execute it on the water.”

The Crimson Tide will race against SMU on March 3 at 9 a.m.