SANTA CLARA, Calif. - After building a strong foundation in 2011, Santa Clara women's crew opened fall practice Tuesday, a day after classes began on the Mission campus. The Broncos return 18 rowers from their 2012 roster and welcome four freshmen.

Last season Santa Clara had 10 freshmen on the roster and only two juniors. In a stark contrast, the Broncos will now have 11 juniors and should benefit from a more experienced roster.

"I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do know that we have an almost entirely full squad returning," said Santa Clara head coach John Wojtkiewicz. "Not only can we start training now as a team as opposed to waiting for the walk-ons to develop, we've been training individually since mid-June. The athletes have been submitting their training logs over the course of the summer and its been inspiring to see how much work they've been getting in. With only three seniors we are still skewing young, but at least now we have a returning squad and an environment that we can develop our speed in. It's a very exciting time."

In 2012, with most of the roster rowing for the first time, Santa Clara participated in eight events, including hosting its first race at Lexington Reservoir. At the Lexington Reservoir race vs. Mills and Sonoma State, Santa Clara won the Varsity 8 and Second Eight with times of 7:54 and 8:36, respectively.

This season the Broncos will compete in seven events including hosting Mills and Sonoma State at Lexington Reservoir for the second consecutive year. The home regatta will be on April 20 2013.

The season will kick-off on Oct. 27 in Sacramento, Calif. at the Head of the American. Two weeks later the Broncos will travel to Foster City and take part in the Head of the Lagoon.

On April 6-7, 2013 the Broncos will travel to the San Diego Crew Classic and two weeks later will compete in the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships. The season will wrap-up at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in Sacramento on June 1-2.

Santa Clara will host "Black Velvet" on Feb. 23, 2013 and "White Leather" on May 25 on the Mission campus.