While the fall season for collegiate crew may be less competitive than the spring season, the UCSD men’s and women’s crew teams didn’t let that interfere with their final performances of the fall. UCSD men dominated at the San Diego Fall Classic on Nov. 14, finishing in first place in the open eight race. Women’s varsity ranked fifth in the Head of the Lake Race, hosted by the University of Washington in Seattle, the best finish of any non-Division I school.
The men’s team came into the Fall Classic after a competition-filled month, including the Head of the Charles Race in Boston, the Row for the Cure event on Mission Bay, and the Newport Autumn Rowing Festival in Newport, Calif. The Fall Classic was the Tritons’ final race of the fall season. Unlike most sports, crew is divided into two seasons. Fall consists of head races, in which every course is a different length and the start is staggered. Comparatively, spring is the more competitive season, as schools race head-to-head in standard 2,000-meter events, which are used for determining the final NCAA rankings.
The men’s team entered the Fall Classic with the goal of beating University of San Diego and San Diego State, which it did easily. The Tritons’ “A” team, with Shannon Oliver as coxswain and Jacob Sendowski in the stroke seat, beat the Toreros by 35 seconds. UCSD clocked in at 19 minutes, 54 seconds; UC Irvine finished in second with 20:22. The “B” team, which finished sixth overall in a time of 20:56, also had the distinction of finishing before the Aztecs, who came in seventh.
“I think the fall season has gone well and we’ve discovered that we have a lot of speed,” sophomore Brenden Carriker said. “The spring season should be fun.”
The women’s team sent its “A” boat to the Head of the Lake Race. Sophomore Katie Kilduff said that Head of the Lake was one of the biggest head races on the West Coast. She also emphasized the importance of the race because it allowed the team to compete against other Division II schools.
“It let us get a feel of how we are for spring competition and let us leave our mark,”
Kilduff said. “Now when Regionals comes, we’ll know where we stand.”
The women’s team raced in the junior varsity division, since Division I schools assume all varsity positions in the regatta. However, racing in the junior varsity spot gave the women’s team a better chance to see how it will rank next spring. Because NCAA placement is determined by overall finishes by region and because most spring races are against Division I schools that will not be considered in the final ranking, the Head of the Lake competition was important to determine initial rankings. The UCSD women were able to dominate rival schools, such as Western Washington University and finished the course with a time of 18:28, compared to Western Washington’s 18:49. Such dominance early in the year bodes well for future NCAA rankings in the spring.
The Head of the Lake Race was especially important to graduating seniors Joyce Chang, Liz Record, Sara Smolley and Ann Rody, because it was their last fall race. Kilduff gave credit to Arianna Pilrim, the boat’s coxswain, for the team’s outstanding performance on Sunday.
“Arianna’s job is to motivate us — and she did a good job,” Killduff said. “When the water got choppy or when things got a little hard, Arianna would tell us to keep going, even saying a few times, ‘Okay, this stroke is for the seniors.’ It was a good race — we did what we set out to do.”
The women’s “B” boat participated in the Fall Classic, finishing sixth in the collegiate open eight with a time of 24:03, compared to first-place finisher San Diego State, which had a time of 22:55.
The UCSD men’s and women’s crew teams will return to action on Mission Bay in February 2005, when they race UC Irvine.
