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SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's rowing opens the 218 season at the Las Vegas Invitational Saturday and Sunday in Henderson, Nev. The Broncos will race against a trio of teams that finished last season ranked in Washington (No. 2), Dartmouth (No. 9), and Oregon State (No. 20).

Santa Clara finished a successful 2017 ranked 23rd in the country after making the IRA National Championships for the third year in a row. The season was highlighted by a Cal Cup win at the San Diego Crew Classic, Western Sprint championship, and a quarterfinal finish at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta.

"We are looking forward to getting the 2018 racing season underway," Santa Clara head coach Jay Farwell said. "We are a very young crew again that will be looking to last year's freshmen class to step up and fill some departures from last year's varsity 8."

The Broncos return Peter Morton, Chris Szigeti, Nick Szigeti, Grant Findlay, and coxswain Grace D'Amico and anticipate a number of sophomores and possibly a freshman to fill the seats from the departed seniors.

"We will be moving a few guys around this weekend as we race each of our opponents to get a look at how the rowers and coxswains are performing," said Farwell. "It is a great opportunity for us to get an early look at how we match up against some of the best crews in the country."

The Broncos will travel their first, second, and third 8's. The only team at the Invite who has rowed in Las Vegas is Oregon State, who participated in the race last year.

"This is going to be a great experience and likely a very humbling one," Farwell said. "There are no illusions here, we have our work cut out for us but if we want to continue to compete on the national level, we have to up our game and face the toughest competition we can find. This will be a great starting point for us and I think our coaching staff will learn a lot from this coming weekend's racing."

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