ONLINE EXTRA: Rowing

By Jessica Bach
Daily Bruin Contributor

It’s been a rough season for the UCLA women’s rowing
team. It’s been hard to compete against top programs as a
first year varsity team. But this weekend is going to be
different.

They can beat this team, they have beaten this team. And now the
Bruins will go into a match that can finally show where they are
at, how far they have gotten.

The Bruins will head off to Redwood Shores on Saturday for the
Stanford Invitational. In a dual match, they will go up against
Santa Clara ““ another first year team ““ fielding boats
in four races (one varsity, one JV and two Novice).

“We’re going to use it as a nice gauge for us, to
see where we are,” head coach Amy Fuller said.

The Bruins have sized-up well against the Broncos in the past.
On April 7 at the San Diego Crew Classic, the Varsity 8 came in
nine seconds ahead of Santa Clara in the finals.

Also at the regatta, the Novice boat qualified and competed in
the top final raced, the Grande finals, where Santa Clara did not
qualify for any finals.

“We hope we can win,” Fuller said. “They have
a fast varsity, but this should be a good chance to hone our
skills. It’s a beautiful course, so it will be really nice to
see exactly where we stand.”

The Invitational will feature many top West Coast teams,
including Stanford and Cal.

The teams will not start competition until 11:10 a.m., with
racing the rest of the day.