Rowing blows out San Diego State in smooth start to season
UCLA rowing opened its 2019 season on Saturday with four victories in all four of its races against San Diego State. (Lauren Man/Daily Bruin)
By Angie Forburger
March 10, 2019 12:45 p.m.
The Bruins opened their season with a sweep.
UCLA rowing won all four of its races against San Diego State in Marina del Rey, California, on Saturday.
“We have pretty solid team depth,” said coach Amy Fuller Kearney. “We still have some work to do to make sure we have all the right people in the right boats, but I was really excited with how everybody stayed focused on execution and intensity and just trying to do the right things to make the boat go.”
In the first race of the day, UCLA’s third varsity eight and fourth varsity eight both crossed the finish line ahead of San Diego State, notching times of 6 minutes, 59.60 seconds and 7:11.70, respectively, in front of the Aztecs’ 7:11.75.
The Bruins’ second varsity eight narrowly defeated Aztecs, crossing the finish line in 6:48.30, ahead of San Diego State’s 6:49.10.
UCLA’s varsity four crew defeated San Diego State by 17 seconds, clocking in at 7:27.20.
The Bruins’ varsity eight rounded out the day with a 6:38.90 finish, edging out the Aztecs by just under 20 seconds.
Senior varsity eight coxswain Clare Fina said UCLA came into the race with a different mentality that helped spark a victory.
“The team really just came together,” Fina said. “We have a completely different attitude than we’ve had in years past and everyone has just really bought into our progress and going fast.”
Despite winning all four races, Fuller Kearney said the Bruins still have some fine-tuning to do given that it was their first matchup of the year.
“We’re just going to continue to work on our race plan,” Fuller Kearney said. “We’ll take a close look at the times and the splits of this race, we’ll listen to the coxswain recordings (and) we’ll see what we did well (and) what we need to work on.”
UCLA will stay at home to take on Loyola Marymount next weekend.
“It was a really exciting first race of the season,” Fina said. “It’s definitely a confidence builder coming out and sweeping San Diego State and winning every race, but I think there’s definitely things we can continue to improve and work on.”
