PHILADELPHIA - The Drake University rowing team heads to the city of brotherly love for the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta, the largest regatta in North America, this weekend. The Bulldogs will compete on the Schuylkill River May 11-12. The races will be shown live on ESPN3.com.

The Bulldogs are coming off their first conference championship in program history. A photo finish in the Varsity 8+ race helped them capture the 2012 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on Lake Mercer in West Windsor, N.J.

Jacque Nowers (Ames, Iowa) (coxswain), Kat Moore (Brooklyn Center, Minn.), Susan Goullette (New Brighton, Minn.), Sarah Travis (Casa Grande, Ariz.) and Maggie Benhart (St. Charles, Ill.) will race in the open weight four race Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. If the Bulldogs are able to advance out of their heat they will race in the semifinals on Saturday morning.

"We have been training specifically for this four person race since conference championships ended two weeks ago," Drake head coach Charlie DiSilvestro said. "We are excited to race especially our two seniors (Kat and Susan) and they have done a good leading us going into this weekend. We have been fine tuning our race plan and we are looking forward to seeing how we stack up against some teams we haven't faced this season."

132 teams are entered in the regatta and Drake will have six other teams in its heat.

This will be the final race of the season for the Drake rowing team.