Last weekend, the German University Championship took place in Brandenburg on the Havel, where Aachen was represented by the RWTH Men’s Eight and the new blood in the so called “Challenge” Four. Thanks to a spirited start, the four with Lutz Pauli, Phillip Hennes, Niklas Borchers, Lukas Botz and coxswain Miriam Höner were able to reach the front of the pack and get ahead with an early sprint, crossing the finish-line a boat length ahead of TU Dresden and TU Hamburg-Harburg. “We are overjoyed that the many practice kilometers on the water and with the rowing machine have paid off.” said Lutz Pauli, the stroke of the winning boat.
The next coup followed just 90 Minutes later. Through its combined strength Aachen boat was able to pull away from the competition, in a high-class field contain U23 World Championship athletes, and take the German University Championship trophy for the seventh year in a row, securing a spot for the Aachen flagship in the 2018 European Universities Championship in Portugal. The Eights from Hannover and Karlsruhe followed on 2nd and 3rd place respectively. “I’m proud of the team. It sticks together and can deliver a good race even in the worst of conditions.” remarked team captain Michel Overlack after the race.
In the concluding sprint of the men’s eight on Sunday afternoon Aachen was again able to push the bow across the finish line in first place, meaning that Thilo Bialaschik, Jonas Kell, Petar Cetkovic, Lukas Raming, Florian Heesen, Michel Overlack, Vincent Schmitz, Nils Knorr and Coxswain Miriam Höner were able to conclude the day by again climbing the podium with teams from Karlsruhe and Bremen.