UCLA rowing shows strong performances in USC loss
Despite falling to USC in the two teams’ annual dual meet, the UCLA rowing team had several promising performances and hopes to build off them headed into the upcoming NCAA championships. (Jose Ubeda/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Monica Gayed
May 5, 2014 1:26 a.m.
Even though the UCLA women’s rowing team was defeated by one point in its meet against crosstown rival USC, the Bruins were proud of several victorious performances.
“In regards to the annual dual meet with our rivals, each athlete is proud to be a Bruin and honored to represent UCLA,” said senior stroke Carolina Paini. “We are grateful for the joy that comes from winning coupled with the great pleasure in beating USC. Above all, our motivation stems from the beautiful aspect of rowing – pulling for each other. Our bond of trust within the boat results in a whole new level of speed.”
With the postseason coming up in two weeks, the Bruins were eager to compete in one more race against the Trojans to enhance their chances and placement at the Pac-12 championships.
“Our finish in this dual meet will be used as one of the contributing factors in deciding the lane assignments for the Pac-12 championships,” said Paini. “We are certainly still in contention for a nomination to the rowing NCAA championships considering our performance throughout the season thus far.”
The victorious performances by the second varsity eight and the novice eight left many jaws dropped. Beating USC by a significant seven-second margin, UCLA’s second varsity eight came in with a time of 6:47.20. The novice team did just as well, coming in with a 29-second lead ahead of USC with 7:05.80.
“Those two boats did really well and they were both new that really haven’t raced yet this year. So we put some new people into the second varsity that moved up from the (varsity four),” said assistant coach Justin Price. “That was their first time racing there and they did a great job so that was a big win and the freshman eight really stepped up and won by three big margins.”
For the past week many of the first varsity Bruins suffered from illnesses; however, they showed their persistence by doing their best at the meet.
UCLA’s attention now shifts towards the upcoming Pac-12 championships.
“Really a lot comes down to the Pac-12 championships and how we perform there. Every race is important and winning the second varsity eight was a good development for the team, and we just have to get the varsity eight back on track,” said coach Amy Kearney. ”We are in a strong position because we have had really great out-of-reach racing results, but we definitely have to have a strong showing at the Pac-12.”
Regardless of illnesses or stress, UCLA is focusing on achieving fast timing as well as fine-tuning technical details for each rower in order to increase efficiency, as Paini indicated.
“From now until the finals of NCAA championships on June 1, we are focused on achieving the highest team finish in UCLA rowing history,” said Paini.
