SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Santa Clara University men's crew program started off its fall season at the Head of the American Regatta at Lake Natoma in Sacramento. Always a popular race, 14 boats competed in the Men's Open 8, the featured event.
Competitors included the University of California-Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, Sacramento State, Cal Lights, and Sonoma State, teams Santa Clara will face again in the remaining races of the 2010 fall season.
Crews faced tough conditions over the 5-kilometer course, including a strong headwind for the majority of the race and bouts with cross-winds down the stretch. Faced with a number of rowers sidelined to injury, SCU fielded only one Men's 8+ and two Men's 4+s boats. Thus, a number of rowers raced twice during the day, providing plenty of valuable early-season experience.
Santa Clara felt they had a good initial showing, though improvement is expected for the upcoming races (Head races are time trials and finishing places are not clear until officials resolve the lag in start time).
The Men's 8+ fell in the middle of the pack, placing 11th with a time of 16:42 near regional rival UC Davis. The Open Men's 4+ competed well against the consistently competitive Cal Lightweights program and the up-and-coming Sacramento State team. They finished seventh with a time of 18:44.63. The SCU Lightweight 4+ had a strong showing against the field, landing them in third at 18:57.52. The boat was stroked by sophomore Drew Norell, manned by senior Nikko Nascimento, sophomores Howie Limburg and Spencer Rahn, and coxed by sophomore Angelica Salinas.
"Despite the headwind, we immediately walked on all of the boats with us," said Nascimento. "By 3k in, we had walked through all of the 4s except Davis and Sonoma." He also highlighted indicators of their success, saying: "Our moves were effective … we slipped into a solid rhythm."
Needless to say, the team was excited to get back on the water racing and looks forward to future regattas in the coming weeks.
Next up is the Newport Autumn Rowing Festival in Southern California, a 4,400-meter race along a rigorous course. Coxswains will have to maneuver through a four-turn course while maintaining a clear race plan to their rowers. The Broncos look forward to the challenge and hope to build on last weekend's opening race.
