Women’s rowing a challenge for Minnesota

You win some, you lose some.

This season, the UCLA women’s rowing team has been winning
more than it has lost, as its undefeated record in dual meets
shows. This past weekend, however, the law of averages caught up to
the Bruins as they split their two races against Big-10 power
Minnesota, winning the Novice 8 race but losing the Varsity 8
race.

“We were pleased with the varsity boat, but we had hoped
they would have won,” UCLA assistant coach Bill Zack said.
“We wanted them to go out and give Minnesota a race … which
they did.”

Minnesota, a quickly rising Mid-western power, was favored going
into the weekend, given UCLA’s inexperience. Because this was
the first time the Bruins have travelled out of state in over ten
years, the conditions weren’t ideal. UCLA wasn’t rowing
in their own boats and had to deal with 40-degree weather, as well
as fatigue from their flight.

All these factors should have meant that Minnesota would have
had no problem dispatching UCLA.

But they did.

In fact, over the first 750 meters of the Varsity 8 race, UCLA
led, putting Minnesota in a place it has rarely been in this season
in a dual meet ““ behind.

However, the Gophers were eventually able to overcome the Bruins
down the stretch, beating them by a boat length, with a time of
6:40.2. The Bruins posted a time of 6:50.1 in the 1900m race.

The UCLA Novice 8 boat fared better than its varsity
counterpart, as it powered its way to a two second margin of
victory over Minnesota, with an official time of 7:15.0. This
continues the novice boat’s unbeaten streak in dual meets
this season.

“We knew that we had a good race ahead of us,”
Novice 8 boat coxswain Arianna Combs said. “But we knew that
we could probably pull out ahead as long as we did what we were
supposed to do.”

UCLA will host USC this Saturday in Ballona Creek, Marina del
Rey at 8:30 a.m.