Tulsa
SMU
Tulsa's Varsity-8 Suffers Another Heartbreaking Loss to SMU
4/14/2002 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
April 14, 2002
Finally, Tulsa was able to host its only home race of the spring season on Sunday, April 14. The race, which had been postponed for two weeks, took place at Zink Lake on the Arkansas River. The scheduled length of the race was 2,000 meters, but due to shallow water the race was shortened to 1,750 meters.
This was the second meeting between Tulsa and SMU this season. The first meeting was in Austin, Texas, at the Longhorn Invitational, March 24. In that race, SMU edged TU by 10-seconds for the victory.
Today's race was even closer than the previous. SMU had a small lead at 1,000 meters. Trouble hit the Tulsa boat at the 1,300 meter mark when the Hurricane's tail fin dragged through some underlying sand for about 10 strokes. While the sand slowed Tulsa down, SMU was able to increase its lead. At the 1,500 meter mark, Tulsa was about four-seconds and a boat length behind SMU. With 250 meters remaining SMU was able to keep its lead and increase it by almost a second to finish ahead of Tulsa by 4.8 seconds.
Both coaches felt that due to Tulsa's problem in the water, the outcome would not have changed. SMU would have still won the race, but the differences in time and the length of the victory could have been closer.
Final Times: SMU-5:51.96. Tulsa-5:56.77.
