Collegiate Challenge: Northwestern vs. Wheaton

This event was added at the 12th hour and it certainly brought out the collegiate crowd. The Prize was a new Concept 2 Model D and Wheaton scrambled to fill out their roster for the 2500-meter relay. After a high-level Pow-Wow between the collegiate coaches, Northwestern willingly allowed Wheaton to 'recruit' from the University of Chicago crew and the challenge was on. In the end, Northwestern pulled ahead by 1min.28 seconds to win this Inaugural Challenge, but it was clear that the gauntlet was thrown down for next year, as this event becomes a permanent fixture of CIRC.

The Rules

To qualify, a Team must pre-register with a minimum of five men and five women competitors and compete in both the 2000m Individual and the 2500-meter Team Relay. The respective five best individual times are averaged from the 2000-meter event to produce Score #1. This is then added and averaged with the 2500m Relay time (Score #2)of each respective team to produce a preliminary men's Score #3 and a preliminary women's Score #3. The two preliminary Scores #3 are added together to produce the Final Team Composite Score. The fastest Final Team Composite Score is declared the Collegiate Challenge winner.