Men's Rowing

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Men's Crew Begins Season in Successful Fashion

Posted: Mar 12, 2008

March 12, 2008

The Santa Clara Men's Rowing team began their 2008 season this weekend with two days of great racing.

The weekend began with the annual Sacramento State Duel. Conditions for the early races were near perfection at Lake Natoma, with clear skies and a slight cross-wind that picked up as the races went on.

The Varsity Eight picked up their first win with a time of 6:05.7 beating Sac State by a boat of open water. The race was close through the 1000, but the V8 surged through the 600 walking through their entire boat in 15 strokes. This ends a two year losing streak in the V8 race.

Santa Clara also dominated the Four's with both the Novice Four and the Varsity Four picking up wins. The novice started the race day with a win by considerable margin. This is the first race for this freshman crew who promises to give last year's Novice Four (who took 5th out of 56 teams at last year's Dad Vail Regatta) a run for their money. Not to be outdone the Varsity Four, three rowers and a coxswain of which were members of the previously mentioned former Novice Four, followed by picking up its first win in a close battle that came down to the last few strokes.

Day two of the opening weekend took place at the Davis Invitational at the Port of Sacramento. It was another day of perfect conditions, clear skies, light wind and a slight outgoing tide.

The Varsity Eight opened the race day beating Davis by open water. The crew took the Aggies off the start and steadily increased their lead through the middle 1000. The outgoing tide and slight cross-wind didn't stop the men from posting a time of apx. 6:12 (official time still TBD. This is Santa Clara's first V8 win over Davis in at least ten years.

The Novice Eight followed taking second in a fight with Davis stoke for stoke through the course. Both Santa Clara and Davis crews pulled ahead of a much improved Sonoma State squad and Cal Maritime crew. Although they were narrowly defeated by the Aggies, the men say they are ready to for revenge at the San Diego Crew Classic a few short weeks away.

On the Four's side, the Varsity 4A easily defeated UCSB and a Davis boat, but were narrowly beaten by Davis' 4A Boat. The squad faced a fleet of fast crews swerving coxswains on this unmarked course, but sophomore coxswain Geoff Demander was able to hold his line and keep his boys neck and neck with the Aggies in a race that could have easily gone either way.

The Varsity 4B boat took their first win of the season, beating two Davis boats and Cal Maritime by a considerable margin. The underdog crew walked through one Davis Four and Cal Maritime after just fractions. They remained in second for the first 750m until freshman coxswain Kiley Winsnes called for the first power ten and the crew walked a full boat-length to take the lead which continued to grow for the remainder of the race.

The Santa Clara Men's team returns to Lake Natoma this Saturday for the Sacramento State Invitational.

Saturday Results:

Varsity 8:
Santa Clara A 6:05.7
Sacramento State 6:12.9
Santa Clara B 6:32.7

Novice 4:
Santa Clara 7:25.1
Sacramento State 7:26.1

Varsity 4:
Santa Clara A 7:09.4
Sacramento State 7:10.2
Santa Clara B 8:04.4

Novice 8 (*):
Sacramento State (*Mixed JV/Nov) 7:06.2
Santa Clara A 7:13.1
Santa Clara B 7:48.7

Sunday Results:

Varsity 8:
Santa Clara 6:13.8
UC Davis 6:19.9

2nd Varsity 8:
Cal Lights 6:26.7
UC Davis 6:28.0
UCSB Lights 6:43.3
Santa Clara 6:45.6

Varsity Four:
UC Davis A 6:56.7
Santa Clara 7:00.6
UC Davis B 7:04.5
UCSB 7:35.8

Varsity 4B:
Santa Clara 7:11.1
UC Davis A 7:13.6
UC Davis B 7:25.0
Cal Maritime 8:16.3

Light 4:
Cal Lights 7:01.3
UC Davis 7:06.9
Sonoma St 7:12.5
UCSB 7:22.7