Feb. 4, 2001

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- The Santa Clara University varsity and novice women's rowing teams recently competed at the Peninsula Indoor Rowing Championships bringing home three gold medals in the process.

Junior Katie Collard (Monterey, Calif.) won the Women's Collegiate Lightweight, with a 2000-meter time of 7:28. Junior Nikole Kaldestad (Seattle, Wash.) led a Bronco medal sweep in the Women's Collegiate Open with a time of 7:47. Holly Miller (Woodinville, Wash.) and Meghan Freeman (Los Angeles, Calif.) finished second and third.

Santa Clara's overall crew, consisting of Collard, Kaldestad, Elizabeth Thomson (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Miller took gold medal honors in the Women's Collegiate Open team race. The squad took the title with an average time of 3:59, finishing :08.5 seconds ahead of second-place Saint Mary's College.

In other individual competition, sophomore Christine Leman (Santa Clara, Calif.) finished second in the Women's Collegiate Novice competition with a time of 8:03.7 Freshmen Addy Zacher (Aurora, Ore.) and Claire Riddell (Newport, Ore.) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Santa Clara women's rowing team will be off until March 11 when it competes in the UC Davis Invitational in Sacramento, Calif.