Indiana rowing to race in 13th annual Dale England Cup at Lake Lemon on Saturday

No. 18 Indiana rowing will compete towards the College of Notre Dame, Clemson College and Michigan State within the thirteenth Dale England Cup on Saturday at Lake Lemon. The Hoosiers enter having received every of the final 4 Dale England Cups and 5 whole.

Of the groups competing this weekend, Indiana is the one one ranked in the latest version of the coaches’ ballot. Clemson additionally obtained votes however didn’t crack the top-20.

The Dale England Cup can be Indiana’s first and solely residence competitors of the season, and head coach Scott Peterson mentioned he believes the rowers will profit from their familiarity with the lake on Saturday.  

“The house course benefit is simply being snug with the lake that we’re rowing on,” Peterson mentioned. “It does have an effect on the athletes. We’re attempting to go there and carry out to one of the best of our talents and when you’ve got distractions coming at you that you just’re not ready for, that causes issues.”

The Dale England Cup is the one competitors between the Large Ten Invitational on April 15-16 and the Large Ten Championships on Could 15, which Peterson known as “the 2 predominant occasions for the 12 months.” Although the races Saturday should not as essential to the general season, Peterson mentioned he nonetheless needs the crew to carry out properly and push themselves to enhance.

“We’ll go on the market and attempt to put forth what we predict goes to be our greatest plan, our greatest race,” Peterson mentioned “Yet another apply time earlier than we go to Large Tens. So knock wooden that’ll go properly and we execute all the pieces the way in which we have been practising.”

Whereas all of the lineups for the boats have been set for many of the season, Peterson mentioned every boat’s technique continues to be being finalized and tweaked heading into the ultimate stretch. He mentioned the aim on Saturday can be to be sure that every boat is performing to its most forward of the Large Ten Championships in two weeks.

As a result of Indiana has already raced towards Michigan State and Notre Dame this season, Peterson mentioned it will likely be straightforward to evaluate how a lot of an enchancment the tweaks make in comparison with earlier races relatively than simply evaluating instances. 

“Margins are thought-about considerably fixed,” Peterson mentioned. “In the event you race in a tailwind and also you lose to a crew by 5 seconds, and also you race in a headwind and also you lose to them by 5 seconds, then OK, you are 5 seconds slower than them. It is the margins actually that we take a look at greater than the precise uncooked instances.”

The competitors will start at 9 a.m. Saturday and can characteristic six races: two Varsity Eight races, two Varsity 4 races and two Novice Eight races. All 4 groups will compete in every race apart from the Second Novice Eight, which can simply characteristic Indiana and Michigan State.

Solely the First Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight and First Varsity 4 races can be scored to find out the winner of the cup. Every race is weighted in a different way, with outcomes from the First Varsity Eight race incomes twice as many factors because the Second Varsity Eight race and 3 times as many factors because the First Varsity 4 race. If a number of groups are tied in level totals as soon as all races have been accomplished, then the tiebreaker will go to the crew that positioned higher within the First Varsity Eight race.