May 17, 2004
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's crew capped off a successful year with a strong performance at the Pacfic Coast Rowing Championships and Pac-10 Championships last weekend at Lake Natoma.
The men's program continued to break new ground, with each of its boats advancing to the grand final events at this competition for the first time in school history. The Varsity eight, Second Varsity eight, Novice eight, Second Novice eight and Novice four all had some of their best races of the season this weekend.
The Varsity Eight advanced to the grand final with a third place finish in the qualification heat, holding off UCLA, LMU and USC. SCU finished behind UC Berkeley (#4 nationally) and Oregon State University (#7 Nationally) with a time of 6:13.00. The grand final event was clearly one of the fastest fields that a crew from SCU has lined up against in program history.
University of Washington (#3) 5:52.90
UC Berkeley (#4) 5:54.00
Oregon State University (#7) 6:03.70
Stanford University (#16) 6:09.70
UC Davis 6:19.10
Santa Clara University 6:30.50
Washington State University, UCLA, Sacramento State, Loyola Marymount University, USC and the University of Oregon rounded out the Petite finals, finishing 7th through 12th respectively.
V8 Line Up:
Bickes, Nick
Perez, Juan
Davidson, Bryce
Matthews, Nathan
Zevenbergen, John
Ungson, Justin
Rhoads, Michael
Schlunt, Michael
Johnson, Ben
The Novice Eight advanced to the grand finals by upsetting the defending WIRA Champion UC Davis crew in the qualification heat. SCU finished third behind the University of Washington Huskies and the Oregon State University Beavers. The win over UC Davis is a turnaround from the loss at the WIRA championship two weeks ago, when UC Davis finished first and SCU took the bronze medal.
In the Grand final, the Novice Eight pulled off another major upset, to defeat the trojans from USC, and finish 5th overall on the Pacific Coast. The finals push to catch USC, took an outstanding sprint in the last 500 meters, which put SCU ahead of the trojans by a convincing boat length. USC had outlasted SCU's Novice Eight earlier in the season in Marina Del Rey, CA.
Mens Novice Eight:
Vu, Natalie (cox)
Guglielmi, Tony
Donahue, Scott
Leary, Kevin
Hoefer, Clayton
Gray, Trevor
Wilbanks, Alex
Neilson, Mike
Holbrook, Kevin
The Second Varsity Eight raced well and finished 6th overall. They had their best race of the year and sent senior Alex Gorman off on a positive note.
Men's Second Varsity 8
Magalong, Edsel (cox)
Johnson, Tony
Wellington, Geoff
Jordan, Daniel
Parames, Daniel
Wells, Jarrod
Nickel, Alex
Gorman, Alexander
Jockisch, Paul
At PCRC's on Saturday, the Second Novice Eight also raced very well and took home a silver medal for their efforts. UC Davis won the event.
Men's Second Novice 8
Maguire, Pat
Towbin, Mike
Kwei, Stephen
Bates, Chris
Opel, Patrick
Walters, Alex
Perry, A.J.
Vazquez, Victor
Clause, Luke
The Novice Four also raced well and finished 2nd place overall, to take the silver medal. Sacramento State won the event.
Mens Novice Four
Maguire, Patrick
Guglielmi, Tony
Wilbanks, Alex
Leary, Kevin
Zevenbergen, John
"The SCU rowing program has developed some great momentum and continues to be stronger year after year," said head coach Tony Barcia. "The athletes worked extremely hard this season and stayed focused on their goals until the last stroke of their final race. Its great to work with such a dedicated and driven set of student-athletes."
Official times for Sunday are available online by clicking here.
