SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Led by seniors Wills Fallon, Christopher Macko and Chris Freeburg, the Santa Clara University men's crew is making its final push towards its championship weekend at nearby Lake Natoma, April 30-May 1.

The Broncos have started to see marked improvement in their times over the past two events, the San Crew Classic (Apr. 2-3) and a dual race versus UC Santa Barbara (Apr. 9).  SCU is entered in the Stanford Invite this weekend at Redwood Shores where they will row head-to-head against UC Davis on Sunday.

"The whole year has been about development," said Santa Clara head men's crew coach Wieslaw Kujda. "As we speak, this week, things are coming together. The San Diego race two weeks ago, we started to understand what it takes to make the boat go fast; consistent progress from one day to another. Which is good, but also you wonder if we have enough time to get to where we want to be by the championships."

The Broncos are preparing to race for the third consecutive weekend, awaiting three dual races at the Stanford Invite in Redwood Shores, Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17. On Saturday, SCU will row twice, most likely facing California and Orange Coast College, leading up to its marquee race of the weekend on Sunday against the Aggies.

"Our race against UC Davis will be telling," said Kujda, who saw his Varsity 8 beat all other West Coast Conference schools at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) championship last spring. "We can not control what other teams are doing, but we are closing the gap. The practices have started to get really, really good, the guys are starting to show the speed we want to have at the right time."

Kujda has four new rowers in his Varsity 8 boat. Fallon, Macko and Freebrug helped Santa Clara place third in the WIRA Grand Final last season and win the WCC Trophy for the first time in school history. SCU posted a 6:16.9 time in that race, a speed the team hopes to duplicate or improve on by the end of this month.