SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In their final event of the year, the Santa Clara men's rowing squad prepares for the Pacific Rowing Conference Championships held May 18.
The Broncos will be facing some of the top crews including Cal and Washington.
To prepare for the PCRCs, head coach Jay Farwell has been getting some of his younger rowers into the varsity mix. Injuries have given some of the first-year rowers and first-year coxswains opportunities to compete at the varsity level.
"We had a number of injuries arise at WIRAs so we lost some key personnel that were in our Varsity 8 and 2nd Varsity 8," said Farwell. "This, however, provided a great opportunity to incorporate the first year rowers and first year coxswains into the varsity mix. Over the last three weeks we have been working hard to bring the first year rowers up to speed and they have done a great job meeting the challenges that we have given them over this time. This is really about building the program for next year and getting our first year rowers a lot of strokes with the varsity to get them more conceptually in-tune with what we are trying to accomplish on the water. This is also going to make next fall more seamless when the crew returns to the water in late September."
Farwell notes that he is looking forward to seeing what the younger rowers, specifically the first-year rowers and coxswains can do with this challenge.
"While we have a small group in numbers, these guys are a great group and I enjoy coaching them," said Farwell. "I see really good things from these guys over the years to come. I am also excited to see how our varsity guys respond after the WIRA performance. We have a young new line-up for the Varsity 8, a really seasoned Varsity 4, a very solid Novice 4, and two pairs. It is going to be a great day of racing."
With so many good crews competing at the PCSC the Broncos have the opportunity to go out and test their hard work against perennial rowing powerhouses (Washington is ranked No. 1 and Cal is No. 6).
"It is important to keep in perspective that in our races this Saturday at PCRCs, we will be facing the 3rd and 4th Varsity 8s for these programs. These boats are still very fast and competitive as these two programs have an incredible amount of depth," said Farwell.
