Drexel rowers rule the river at Dad Vail

Drexel is the city's premier rowing program - at least on this day.

That's because the Dragons joined Purdue and Grand Valley State on Friday as the only programs to automatically advance to both the men's and women's varsity heavyweight eight semifinals at the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta.

And unlike Purdue and Grand Valley State, Drexel did so by posting first-place finishes in both the men's and women's trial heats on the Schuylkill. The semifinals are set for Saturday morning. The top two finishers in each of the three semifinal heats will advance to Saturday afternoon's finals.

"We really wanted to come down and have a good race the first heat," said Drexel coach Paul Savell, whose squads both posted come-from-behind victories. "We were going out planning to win it.

"They were both tough races But I think we still have faster speed in us tomorrow."

In all, the Dragons advanced to Saturday's semifinal rounds in eight events. They also finished first in Friday's trial heats in the men's pair, men's freshman/novice heavyweight eight and women's freshman/novice heavyweight eight.

The Dragons also made the semifinals in the women's pair, men's junior varsity heavyweight eight and women's junior varsity heavyweight eight.

But on Friday, most of the attention went to Drexel's varsity heavyweight eight teams.

The Dragons men's team of bowman Jacob Sloan, Tim Drake, Kyle Fabel, Michael Faust, Lorenzo Albala, Aleksandar Radovic, Gregg Francis, stroke Kurt Linton and coxswain Randall Lee covered the 2,000-meter course in 5 minutes, 57.84 seconds. Jacksonville, which finished second in 5:59.10, was the heat's other automatic advancer.

Delaware (5:52.57) was the fastest automatic qualifier, while Temple (6:04.25) is the area's other varsity heavyweight eight qualifier.

On the women's side, Drexel's squad of bowman Dana Haneman, Casondra Clawson, Emily Coyle, Kayla Wroblesky, Mallory Sykes, Julia Jackson, Alexa Antonioli, stroke Elizabeth Bratton and coxswain Kerry Walsh won its heat in 6:50.35, ahead of second-place finisher Connecticut (6:52.37).

Old Dominion University (6:44.74) posted the fastest time of the 12 automatic women's qualifiers. St. Joe's, which posted the second fastest qualifying time (6:49.63), is the only other local automatic qualifier.

The Drexel women began a quest after which they hope to have shown that the Dragons were actually the best team at last season's regatta.