March 13, 2003
Saturday's Race Schedule
Sunday's Race Schedule
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara University's men and women's crews will host the First Annual West Coast Conference Challenge this weekend, March 15-16, at Redwood Shores in Redwood City, Calif. The two-day event will feature a series of dual matches between the six participating schools.
Joining the Broncos at the event are the crews from Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary's, San Diego and Sacramento State. All boats will launch from Paradon Point at Redwood Shores beginning at 9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
The racecourse, which is considered by many to be the premier dual meet course on the West Coast, was designed by Charlie Wynn who was one of the first crew coaches in Santa Clara history. The course itself is very narrow and allows for 2 boats to race at a time. The bridge at the halfway point allows spectators to view the entire race as well as get a sense of the speed as the boats travel through the bridge.
"We are very excited about hosting the WCC Challenge," said SCU men's crew head coach Jay Farwell. "This event will provide us with competitive racing early in our season and allow us to see where we stand against the WCC schools. There should be some great racing for both the men and women and we hope to turn this into an annual event."
The Bronco men enter the race having defeated the Sacramento State men's club crew last week at Lake Natoma near Sacramento. It will be only the second true test for the men's team since they resumed their fall schedule.
The Bronco women enter the event after performing well at Lake Natoma last week against Sacramento State. The women's varsity eight finished its race last week in a time of 7:18.1, just seven seconds behind the Hornets.
"We are making progress and this event is just another chance to gauge where we actually stand in comparison to the teams we should be judging ourselves against," said women's head coach Stephanie Shepherd. "I think it will be a great test at an event that I hope we can make an annual occurrence."
Daily recaps and race results can be found following the completion of the final race at www.SantaClaraBroncos.com as well as at www.row2k.com. The final race on Saturday is scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m., while Sunday's final race is slated for 12:15 p.m.
