ONLINE EXTRA: Crew team prepares to face ’91 championship team

By Jessica Bach
Daily Bruin Contributor

The women’s rowing championship team is coming home. Back
to reclaim their Bruin legacy, back to bask in the glory they
created … 11 years ago. This Saturday the 1991 Pac-10 champions
will face off against the current UCLA rowing squad at the Alumni
race.

The entire ’91 team, UCLA’s last to win a rowing
championship before losing it’s varsity status in 1992, will
be at Marina del Rey.

“This is going to bridge the gap between UCLA’s
legacy back then and what it can be,” head coach Amy Fuller
said.

As the first race of the spring season for the current Bruins,
this race will be a simple way to ease into their first varsity
season in more than a decade.

“I’m pumped to start, even if its just against the
alumni,” fifth-year senior Jenn Carey-Ruiz said.
“We’ve been practicing for so long, it’s nice to
finally get the season going.”

The team will have the opportunity to use all of it’s
members, both varsity and novice to the alumni.

The Bruins had only two races last fall, giving them a small
taste of the spring season.

“For us, we’ve already raced before. But the novice
has been training so long, and it’s nice to show them what
they have been working for,” Carey-Ruiz said.

This weekend’s exhibition race will be more a learning
experience than competition between the two Bruin teams.

“I’m not so much intimidated but looking forward to
seeing who they are,” sophomore Irene Condella said. “I
know what it takes to win, but they worked just as hard and won a
title.”