PHILADELPHIA - The Drake rowing team took first place in its heat at the 2012 Dad Vail Regatta to advance to the semifinals of the largest regatta in the nation.  DU knocked off Northwestern, Maryland and Ohio today.

The Bulldogs will race at 9:42 a.m. tomorrow morning against teams from St. Joseph, Colgate, Ohio St., Duke and Vermont.  If the Bulldogs are able to take second place or better they will advance to the finals in the afternoon.

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.) clocked in at 7:50.422 in the open women's Varsity Heavyweight Four + race.

"We are excited to move on but at the same time we are going one race at a time," Drake head coach Charlie DiSilvestro said. "Today we raced through some pre-race anxiety because this event is so big and has a lot going on but we found a rhythm and we started to break away about 500 meters in."

Tomorrow's races will be shown live on ESPN3.com.