OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (April 21, 2012) - After posting one of their most successful results in years the weekend before, the Rollins men's crew did it once again at the 2012 SIRA Championships as they recorded their best times in the novice 8 and varsity 8 boats. 

The novice 8 (Cox Rachel Reams, Ben Smith, Chris Pichert, Zach Urow, Ben Van der Werf, John Frelinghuysen, Ethan White, Patrick Smith, David Cottrell) battled 28 other boats in the water in their race and needed to finish in the top-3 to advance to the semifinals.  Rollins finished third in their heat, three seconds behind the second-place boat from Delaware.  Their time of 6:35.79 placed them in the middle of the pack for the semifinals.

"The semifinals are going to be a serious boat race to make the grand finals and petites for Sunday," said assistant men's coach Brandon Thompson. 

The N8 was up to the challenge in the semifinals as they produced a come-from-behind fourth-place win over Vanderbilt with a time of 6:29.42 to put them in the second level finals on Sunday. 

"I cannot remember when the last time Rollins had a novice 8 make it this far in this event," Head Coach Shawn Pistor said.  "This is a huge success with the quality of team and speed of boats at this event."

The varsity 8 men (Cox Eric Pagan, Nick Pittari, Kip Zimmerman, Rob Spolsino, Ali Hakim, Brian Burch, David Rice, Mitch Verboncoeur, Tim Mazzotta) earned their way into the semifinals posting a third-best time in their heat of 6:03.11 which was best for the second level semis.  The Tars then posted their career best time of 5:57.6 to earn them a spot in the third level grand finals on Sunday.  It was their best time on this course and in the event.

"It is amazing that a 5:57 has trouble making the second level finals," added Pistor. 

Rollins made a similar move in the final 300m of the race to come from half a boat down to push for the fourth place finish.  A photo finish brought the news that Rollins had finished 1.1 seconds shy of that finish. 

The novice 8 will face familiar opponents from earlier in the season but will have something to prove Sunday morning with finals beginning at 9:49.