Varsity, novice teams propel to finals at weekend regatta

The San Diego Crew Classic regatta on Saturday and Sunday proved
to be a mixed bag of surprise and disappointment for the UCLA
women’s rowing team. Both the varsity and novice eights
qualified for the Grand Finals for the first time in over 10
years.

Nonetheless, the varsity eight had a disappointing fifth place
finish behind both USD and LMU, two teams it had handily beaten
previously this year.

“If you had told me on Friday that we’d have the
novice and varsity eight boats in the Grand Finals, I would have
been thrilled,” women’s rowing head coach Amy Fuller
said. “Looking back, we could have done better,
though.”

The San Diego Crew Classic is the United States’ premier
spring rowing regatta. It sees over 3,000 athletes ranging from
novice rowers to Olympians competing. UCLA entered three boats in
the NCAA categories: a varsity eight, second varsity eight and a
novice eight.

The women’s varsity eight won its heat Saturday with a
time of 7:22.50, overpowering Southern Methodist, University of San
Diego and Sacramento State among others. The first place finish had
the Bruins poised to win the Cal Cup the next day, an impressive
accomplishment for any second-year varsity team. That would have
paved the way for an automatic berth in next year’s more
respected Whittier Cup.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

“I think they just got a little too over-excited,”
coach Fuller said.

UCLA held third for the first half of the race, but was dropped
to fourth by West Virginia at the halfway mark. Despite the four
leaders keeping within two seconds of each other for most of the
race, West Virginia surged ahead down the stretch and was able to
capture the Cup in a time of 6:57.00. UCLA finished with a time of
7:01.12, almost four seconds behind LMU, whom it had beaten a week
before, and three seconds behind USD, a team the Bruins had beaten
in the heat the day before.

“We just didn’t put it together for 2000
meters,” varsity eight co-captain Irene Condella said.
“The other crews in our race just had a better
race.”

The women’s novice eight fared slightly better than their
more experienced counterparts. Despite not winning their heat,
their second place finish behind Washington with a time of 7:51.07
was good enough to qualify them for the next day’s Grand
Final.

In that race, the team jumped out in front for an early lead,
but slowed just enough at the end to allow Washington State and
Oregon State to pass it. The boat finished with a time of 7:03.82,
two seconds behind the winner. The Bruins were able to hold off
Washington ““ the team who had placed ahead of them in the
heats the day before.

The second varsity eight boat had the poorest showing of the
weekend, as they finished sixth in their heat with a time of
8:15.07, nearly 45 seconds behind first-place Washington. They
competed in the Third Level Final later that day and placed third,
for an overall finish of 15th.

This weekend the Bruins return home to Ballona Creek to host the
Miller Cup on Saturday, when they will be competing against USD and
LMU among others once again.

For the varsity eight team, revenge is Bruin.