Crew to make strokes of glory in season’s opening

By Jackie Abellada
Daily Bruin Contributor

The fall season for the UCLA women’s crew team will
commence this weekend as the squad competes in its first meet as a
varsity sport in 10 years.

On Saturday the Bruins will stroke their way to the head of the
marina, trying to defend their home waters against schools such as
Loyola Marymount and UC San Diego.

On Sunday, they will head south to Newport Beach, where they
will compete in the Newport Autumn Rowing Festival against USC, UC
Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UCSD, University of San Diego and LMU,
just to name a few. Both events will commence at 8:00 a.m. for the
varsity team, while the novice team will begin at 9:30 a.m. on
Sunday.

“It really is about team-building and trying to get used
to the new system,” UCLA head coach Amy Fuller said.
“We are going into it knowing that, I think, if we can come
out feeling like we had a good row ““ the boat was set and we
put all the power we could ““ I think that is going to be our
measure of success.”

The crew team will be participating in 11 events this year,
three in the fall and eight in the spring.

The “long course” fall season consists of two and
half- to three-mile races lasting 20 minutes, compared to the 2,000
meter, six-minute meets in the “short course”
spring.

Preliminary rankings will be made based on the fall race
results, but according to Fuller, the results will not be
“indicative of spring speed.”

The double-header will give the team a good opportunity to see
where they stand compared to the rest of the competition. It will
allow the women to make some modifications, if needed, in their
training and work-outs in order to be in tip-top shape before the
spring season.

“I think we are prepared for this weekend,”
second-year rower Irene Condella said. “We have been working
really hard, and the new coach has kind of put a different spin on
things. So, I think that in and of itself has gotten us more
psyched up mentally.”

The team will have one more fall race on Nov. 11 when they
compete in the San Diego Fall Classic. The squad’s first
spring competition will be against Long Beach State on Mar. 9,
2002.

“Our goal is to become another force to be reckoned within
UCLA’s prestigious winning athletic tradition,” third
year rower Lyndsey Wells said. “We want to come out from the
very beginning and make a statement: We’re going to be
serious contenders this year.”