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ORLANDO, Fla. – The 19th-ranked University of Pennsylvania women’s rowing team moved three of its four boats into their respective A Finals at the inaugural Orlando Invitational, with the fourth missing out by the narrowest of margins. The two-day event is being hosted by the University of Central Florida (UCF) on Lake Pickett and concludes on Saturday.
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Live Results (CrewTimer.com)
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Penn’s Varsity Eight finished third in its heat on Friday, clocking 6:21.2 across the 2,000-meter course which was behind No. 11 UCF (6:15.5) and No. 15 Miami (6:18.9). The gut punch came in the next race, when Oklahoma finished third behind Duke and Alabama but clocked 6:21.1. That one-tenth of a second difference moved the Sooners into Saturday’s A Final ahead of the Quakers.
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Penn’s Varsity Four and Third Varsity Eight advanced automatically via top-2 finishes in their heats, the 3V8 clocking 6:36.9 to defeat UCF (6:38.6) and Miami (6:51.5) while the V4A covered the course in 7:13.8 and finished second in its four-boat race behind UCF (7:09.9) but ahead of Miami (7:18.7) and Clemson (7:34.7). The Second Varsity Eight finished third in its heat in 6:30.8 and had to sweat out the second heat, but advanced to the A Final when SMU took third place in that race with a time (6:38.0) that was well behind the Quakers.
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Friday Heats (vs. #11 UCF, #15 Miami, Clemson)
  1V8 – 1. UCF 6:15.5; 2. Miami 6:18.9; 3. Penn 6:21.2; 4. Clemson 6:25.6
 2V8 – 1. UCF 6:25.0; 2. Miami 6:27.1; 3. Penn 6:30.8; 4. Clemson 6:39.8
 V4A – 1. UCF 7:09.9; 2. Penn 7:13.8; 3. Miami 7:18.7; 4. Clemson 7:34.7
 3V8 – 1. Penn 6:36.9; 2. UCF 6:38.6; 3. Miami 6:51.5
Saturday Finals
 Racing starts at 7:40 a.m.
For the latest on Penn women’s rowing, follow @PennWomensRowing on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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#FightOnPenn
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