Women’s rowing wins Miller Cup

The UCLA women’s rowing team was able to redeem itself
Saturday at the Miller Cup in Ballona Creek, participating in all
four Grand Finals and winning two of them as it went on to capture
the regatta for the first time in over a decade.

The premier race of the day was the varsity eight Grand Final,
in which the UCLA women overpowered San Diego and Loyola Marymount
to capture the Miller Cup. The Bruins have beaten these two teams
on previous occasions this season, but had come up short in
competition against them the weekend before at the San Diego Crew
Classic.

The varsity eight team, which had the fastest heat time of
6:51.10 on the 2000m course, fell behind early to LMU in the Grand
Final. However, unlike their performance last weekend, the Bruins
refused to let this faze them. By the halfway point they were able
to regain the lead, and they finished the 1750m final with a time
of 5:54.60, four seconds over second place finisher USD. LMU became
fatigued and fell into third place down the stretch.

“We tried to stay calm and execute the race plan a little
better,” UCLA coach Amy Fuller said. “Being a young
crew, it’s easy to be inconsistent, but today was really
important for us to battle back, and show that we can
dominate.”

Fuller attributed the loss at the Crew Classic to
over-excitement, and the Bruins were determined not to let their
emotions get in the way again.

“We didn’t panic when we were down (to LMU in the
final),” varsity rower Liz Pallas-Jacobs said. “We got
things back together, and stuck to our race plan.”

The other successful UCLA boat was the novice eights, who won
both its heat and Grand Final. The novice boat, composed primarily
of first year rowers, has consistently found success this year in
beating other Southern California teams. Saturday was no different
as it led the Grand Final wire-to-wire and finished with a time of
6:23.30 ““ a whopping 16 seconds ahead of the second place
finisher, San Diego State.

“For the final, they went all out,” UCLA’s
novice eight coxswain Arianna Combs said. “They held a nice
stroke rate of 34 (strokes per minute), their splits were good-
they made it look easy.”

The junior varsity eights had a strong showing in its heat with
a winning time of 7:22.90 over USD, but was unable to repeat its
performance in the Grand Final. It finished third behind SDSU and
USD with a time of 6:38.50, eight seconds off the leader.

Saturday’s other race was the varsity four boats, the
format in which the NCAA championships are run. UCLA entered two
boats in this category, one of which made it to the Grand Final,
and finished second behind SDSU with a time of 7:05.40.

The Miller Cup, in its 28th year, showcased entrants from San
Diego State, Loyola Marymount, University of San Diego, UC Irvine,
Orange Coast College and UCLA.

The Bruins are hoping their momentum will travel with them this
upcoming weekend when they head to Stanford to face off against
some of the tough northern Pacific Coast teams at the Stanford
Invitational.

“We’re going into it expecting everything and
nothing,” freshman novice rower Anya Wanberg said.