WOMEN’S CREW ‘mdash; It wasn’t a failure in execution that cut UCSD’s season short at the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships last weekend. The Tritons came in third at the event on May 16 in Lake Natoma, Calif., falling just shy of a spot in the NCAA Division-II National Championships. But despite the disappointing results, the team recorded its fastest time all season at the regatta.
‘We wanted to keep improving to the end of the season, and also to try to finish first or second in our region,’ head coach Pattie Pinkerton said. ‘If we had finished first or second we would have had a chance at an at-large bid to the NCAAs. We did improve a lot ‘mdash; we got our best performance of the season ‘mdash; but it wasn’t fast enough.’
The Tritons weren’t the only ones who had their best race of the season at Lake Natoma. Competing in perfect racing weather, several of UCSD’s opponents also stepped up their game, forcing the Tritons to settle for third.
‘Western Washington [University] won the last four national championships, and they turned in their fastest race,’ Pinkerton said. ‘Humboldt State had their fastest race too, and we came in third.’
Dominating at the regatta, Western Washington won the varsity eight race by more than 20 seconds and the varsity four by almost 10 seconds. Humboldt State placed second in both of the races.
In preparation for the regatta, the Tritons mainly focused on improving their sprinting speed in an attempt to advance to nationals.
‘We worked a lot on speed work, changing our workouts a little bit to work on sprinting and timing,’ Pinkerton said. ‘We had been struggling to get our rating and hull speed up. We were really quite successful [at the PCRCs].’
UCSD’s national championship chances were hindered by the high quality of its competition in comparison to the rest of the country.
‘Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, we play in one of the toughest regions,’ Pinkerton said. ‘The way things are set up, there are only going to be two spots for our region at nationals.’
The Tritons, who placed second at the last two national championships, garnered some encouraging results at the regatta, even though their season was cut short. Their open eight and open four boats, comprised of a mix of varsity and novice racers, both placed second. UCSD’s novice four boat placed fifth in a field of seven, with all other teams coming from Division-I programs.
‘The success of those boats speaks well for our future,’ Pinkerton said.
Moving forward, the Tritons will have their work cut out for them next season as they say goodbye to several seniors.
‘I think every season is like a reset,’ Pinkerton said. ‘We’re losing eight seniors and I don’t think the teams we’re racing against will be losing as many. But we have a lot of terrific novices and freshmen moving into the varsity next year. This has been one of the best teams that I’ve worked with in my 10 years. Over the past two or three years we’ve set the bar for other teams, and they’ve risen to the challenge. That says a lot about our women.’
Readers can contact Janani Sridharan at [email protected].