Norman — In her first year as coach of the Oklahoma rowing team, Leeanne Crain was asked to build the foundation of a program. This season, Crane is asking her rowers to do even more
The program’s sophomore season begins at noon today with the OU Invitational on the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City (1409 Exchange Ave). The three day meet will have the Sooners competing against Creighton, Kansas, San Diego, SMU and Tulsa.
“We are really looking forward to the spring season,” said Crain. “We’ve done a lot of fundamental technical work on the river and have had solid training sessions. I’m eager to see how it all pays off.”
After the OU Invite, the team hits the road until May 1 when they return home for the Big 12 Championships.
“We have a pretty aggressive racing schedule with the OU Invitational, Longhorn and Crew Classic back-to-back,” Crain said. “Over the course of those three weekends in March, we’ll race 10 times. It will give us the opportunity to look at lineups and see how the athletes handle the stress of that many races in that period of time.”
The Sooners will look to veterans Chelsea Moore and Meagan Harrell to pace the squad this year. Moore, a graduate of Norman North, Harrell and sophomore Lauren Price were all part of the last year’s varsity squad.
Michael Kinney 366-3537 mkinney@normantranscript.com
