The T-shirts of 14 members of the UCSD women’s crew team read “13,900 minutes on the water, 600,000 minutes of erging, 73,350 pounds in the weight room; all for this moment, all for this race,” referring to the squad’s participation in the NCAA National Rowing Championships in New Jersey May 26 through 28. At the rigorous three-day event, the girls gave it their all, but their biggest rival, Western Washington University, took the final win. The girls did not return empty-handed, however, as they came home with the third-place trophy.
The women’s crew team sent its entire squad to nationals, including rowers Megan Hagquist, Kali Webb, Katie Morris, Kelsey Thomas and coxswain Phoebe Lee (not pictured).
After the varsity-four boat lost by only a 10th of a second to Barry University, the varsity eight also came up a bit short, coming in third out of three boats during its first heat on May 26. After the rough beginning, the Tritons refocused their efforts for Saturday’s Repechage races, in which they had another shot at making it to the Grand Finals.
“We realized it was a do or die moment,” senior varsity-four rower Katie Morris said. “We regrouped after Barry and changed the race plan a bit. We are usually more conservative in sprints, but this time we attacked the race with poise and strength, started sooner and bumped up the ratings. The rowers responded beautifully.”
The varsity-four boat pulled out for the win over Nova Southeastern University with a time of 7 minutes, 51 seconds, and advanced to compete in the finals on May 28.
The varsity-eight girls weren’t as fortunate, but many seniors said it was the best race of their college careers.
Senior coxswain Arianna Pilram detailed the disappointing loss.
“It was a dogfight,” she said. “All four boats were neck-and-neck, all aligned for the most part until the last 15 strokes, when out of nowhere, Florida State, who was in last place, did an amazing sprint and [took second] at the very end.”
Nova Southeastern took first while Florida State hit second, both within milliseconds of each other at the seven-minute mark. UCSD fell next in line at 7:01, finishing one second behind Florida State, right ahead of Dowling University at 7:02.
The varsity-eight-rowers went on to defeat Dowling again on May 28 in the Petite Final race, and followed their win by cheering on senior coxswain Phoebe Lee, sophomore stroke Kelsey Thomas and rowers senior Katie Morris, sophomore Kali Webb and junior Megan Hagquist in the varsity-four boat. The UCSD team placed third, behind the rowing powers of Western Washington and Barry in the Grand Finals.
Though the team didn’t come away as the national winner, the UCSD program has grown leaps and bounds, according to team members. The tightly knit varsity team has 14 girls, as compared to 35 to 50 in the past. Senior varsity captain Cara Kuebert and junior rower Leah Llach received All-American honors, and were impressive in closing the team’s 15-second gap against rival Western Washington to four seconds this season.
“We aren’t the biggest girls, but we are technically sound,” Pilram said. “We have proven we can make it to nationals, and now we can really focus on placing there.”
Kuebert also added that the women’s crew program is constantly improving.
“We had a really strong season and set the bar high,” she said. “All of the teams are getting a lot faster; there is no stopping us now.”
