The Johns Hopkins men's varsity four captured third place to lead the Blue Jay Men's and Women's Crew Teams at the Murphy Cup hosted by Temple University on the Schuylkill River Saturday.
The men's varsity four finished second in its heat in 6:52.66. However, in the final, the Blue Jays completed the course in 6:52.16, placing behind only two squads from Temple that finished in 6:41.20 and 6:43.54.
Only the men's teams advanced to the finals with varsity four finishing third, the novice four rowing to a fifth place finish in 7:30.02 and the varsity two finishing in 7:30.83 for a fourth place finish. The lady Blue Jays failed to advance into the afternoon finals in both the Women's Varsity four and eight. In both preliminary heats, Johns Hopkins finished last with a time of 8:18.95 in the women's varsity four and 7:06.63 in the varsity eight.
"The Murphy Cup showed us that we are definitely improving, but we still need to work to get to the next level," sophomore Paul Koljonen said. "We have our team trials, soon, where we will finalize the lineup for each boat. A fixed lineup of the strongest rowers will allow us to be faster and more competitive."
The team also competed in the Occoquan sprints where the men's pairs finished in third and fifth place. The Hopkins "B" team finished in third place with a time of 7:35.80. The "A" team finished in fifth place with a time of 7:50.40.
The women's varsity eight finished in fourth place in the petite final in 7:20.90. The women's junior varsity eight finished in fourth place behind George Washington, Drexel and Mary Washington.
Johns Hopkins will next compete on Apr. 28 in the Atlantic Collegiate League Sprints (ACLS) in Rossville, Pa. This year the ACLS will feature six teams ranked in the top 20 nationally in Division III women's eights.
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