Squash
The Irish hosted Purdue and Western Michigan on Saturday on the newly refurbished Joyce Center squash courts. Notre Dame christened the courts with a 7-2 victory over Western Michigan, before falling to Purdue 8-1.
Eric Huang went the distance in two hard-fought five-game matches on the day. Excellent debuts featured Allison Fachetti and Chris Sander, the latter winning his first College Squash Association (CSA) match and providing the only Irish win over Purdue. Brian Hurley fought hard but lost against a tough Purdue No. 1.
Kenneth Schlax, Michael Todisco, who is also a sports writer at The Observer, and Dennis Grabowski played well against the Broncos but lost to Purdue.
Freshmen Justin Campbell and Luke Pardue looked much improved against Western Michigan, with mixed success. Junior Ryan Jenks returned after a long hiatus, easily defeating his Western Michigan opponent but falling in an intense four games to Purdue's No. 2.
Sailing
Notre Dame competed in the Timme Angsten Memorial Regatta this weekend, hosted by Chicago Yacht Club. This event also serves as the Midwest Fall Championship, and the Irish placed sixth of nine schools. Wisconsin-Madison won the event, followed by Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Marquette, the Irish, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Queens and the University of Chicago.
On Saturday, there were strong and steady winds of 10-12 mph with temperatures in the mid-40s. Sunday was slightly warmer and winds started light but built to about 15 mph by the last race. In the A Division, Nathaniel Walden skippered and Ali Donahue crewed. In the B Division, Jeff Miller skippered and Jessica Hedrich crewed.
Men's Rowing
The men's rowing club travelled to Grand Rapids, Mich. early Saturday morning to scrimmage the Grand Valley State University men's rowing team. The Irish raced three varsity eight boats and one novice eight boat at the scrimmage, which consisted of a 3,000-meter head race, three 1500-meter sprints, and one 500-meter dash.
The first varsity eight of the club placed first in the head race, with a time of 9:30.0. The crew — coxed by Greg Obee, with Garrett Campbell, Greg Flood, Michael Maggart, Brent Shawcross, Zach Stackhouse, Tim Parks, Sean Gibbons and Michael Wagner from stroke to bow — was followed by the first Grand Valley eight. The second, third, and novice eights from Notre Dame placed fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively.
In the first sprint, the top Laker eight pulled ahead of the field, finishing with a time of 3:50.0. The three Notre Dame varsity eights finished second, third and fourth, ahead of the Grand Valley second and third eight boats.
In the second sprint, the top Notre Dame eight moved through the top Grand Valley eight in the second half of the piece, winning with a time of 3:51.1. The second and third Note Dame eights placed fourth and fifth behind the top two Laker boats.
In the third sprint, after Grand Valley got to an early lead by one boat length, the top Notre Dame eight moved through their boat again, winning with a time of 3:51.4. The second and third Notre Dame eights finished third and fifth, respectively.
The Laker boat got ahead early in the 500-meter dash and held the lead, finishing with a time of 1:21.2. The top two Notre Dame eights finished second and third, with the third varsity eight finishing fifth.
This was the first sprint-style racing of the season for the novice eight. They placed second in their heat in each of the 1500-meter sprint races and won their heat in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:31.0.
This was the last fall regatta of the season for club. It will head indoors within the next few weeks to begin their winter training season.
