April 3, 2007
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - This past weekend the men and women's crew teams from Santa Clara competed in the 34th annual San Diego Crew Classic. The regatta is one of the biggest gatherings of rowing teams on the West Coast and draws hundreds of top competitors from around the United States and world every year. Over the course of two days, the San Diego Classic features 90 races going 2,000 meters across Mission Bay.
Saturday saw calm waters and sun throughout the day, warming up in the afternoon but with a light breeze that didn't disturb the boats too much. The next day the sun stayed out but the wind picked up making for slightly tougher conditions on the water.
The men's varsity took to the calm but cold bay water and started the first race of the day at 7:30 am on Saturday. Some of the top teams were in the lanes next to them and they finished 6th with a time of 6:26:51.
Following the men, the women's varsity team rowed in the Sam Adams/Mesa Distributing Cup. The girls finished a very respectable third just fractions of a second behind Temple University with a time of 7:13:94 and a qualifying spot for the women's Petite race the next day. The ladies second race was in the Carley Copley Cup. SCU finished fifth out of the seven boats with a time of 8:12:74. For their last race the women's team competed in the Cal Cup Petite, which they had qualified for on Saturday. They finished in third place beating out the University of San Diego, West Virginia, and UC Santa Barbara with a time of 7:22:19.
Next up on the first day of the regatta was the men's novice team. They also did well, finishing ahead of USD and Chapman University with a time of 6:43:52 in the Derek Guelker Memorial Cup. For their second race later that day, the men flew by four other boats finishing second with a time of 7:08:07.
The women's novice team also had a good finish in their first race finishing the 2,000 meters in third with a time of 8:33:41. Their second race, the novice team finished a very strong fourth out of seven teams with their fastest time of the weekend 7:58:00. In their final race the novice ladies finished second in their field clocking in at 8:22:75.
The men's JV team had a tough time in their two races rowing hard and finishing in 5th and fourth place with times of 7:14:77 and 6:51:95 respectively.
The Santa Clara crew teams will return to action to compete for the Lexington Cup at the Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos on April 14.
