ORLANDO - The No. 11 UCF rowing team is set to host the first-ever Orlando Invite on home water of Lake Pickett on Friday, April 17 at the UCF Intercollegiate Rowing Center.
The regatta is the first of it's kind, serving as the only time the Knights have welcomed more than two additional programs to race on their waters at the UCF Boathouse.
UCF enters the Orlando Invite with strong momentum following an impressive showing at the Ohio State Invite at Griggs Reservoir. The Black and Gold completed their third consecutive sweep of the season, claiming first place finishes in all races they competed in.
Following the clean sweep in the Buckeye State, the Knights broke program-history in the rankings for the second time this season, earning a rank of No. 11 in the polls just two weeks removed from a program-best of 12.
The Knights will welcome a competitive field of seven visiting programs, five of which appear on the latest CRCA poll. Among them are No. 13 Alabama, No. 14 Duke, No. 15 Miami, No. 19 Penn and No. 24 Oklahoma.
In addition to the ranked competition making the trip, the Black and Gold will open their boathouse to another two highly-talented crews in Clemson and SMU.
Friday's racing will consist of 10 heats that will lead to Saturday's finals. The top seed, based on rankings, will will race in heat one, seed one and the following ranked crews will follow. Both Friday and Saturday's racing will commence at 7:40 a.m.
Racing will be streamed live on the UCF Knights YouTube account and live results can be found here.