Crew Classic Recap
15 Apr 2009
Varsity 8+ Struggled for 5th Place Finish in Third Finals while Novice 8+ Excelled with 3rd Place Finish in Petites
The San Diego Crew Classic started in the early 1970s with just two rowing clubs gathering for a small duel. Over the past thirty years the event has grown to host thousands of people and many renowned schools such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, Harvard, and the University of Washington.
Washington State Men's Crew had many fierce challengers in California at the Crew Classic, their first major spring regatta. The Varsity 8+ competed in the third event on Saturday, April 4 against very fast crews such as University of San Diego and University of California at Los Angeles. The men and their coxswain were disappointed with their time of 6:41.80. They made it to third finals, which they raced that same same day at 2:50pm and finished a much more satisfying race with a time of 6:28.91, a fifth place finish. The Varsity finished 17th overall, out of 20 crews.
The novice team did very well in their event. Their boat includes no athletes that have previously rowed in high school, and even one (bow seat Andrew Wilcox) began rowing just three months ago at the start of spring semester. The N8+ competed against highly acclaimed crews such as the University of Washington and Orange Coast College, and finished with a fourth place finish of 6:33.67. Their time took them to the petite finals where they finished third behind University of California at San Diego and University of Michigan, with a solid time of 6:25.26, just 5 seconds behind first place UCSD.
The WSU Men's Novice crew has proved to be both mentally and physically tough this year and will continue to shine this spring. Both the Novice and Varsity boats had to race twice on Saturday, which was extremely difficult especially due to the intense California sunlight that the men weren't accustomed to. The Cougars came back to Pullman slightly sunburned, but very happy with the long weekend.
