NEWPORT HARBOR, Calif. ? The UC San Diego women's crew opened 2009 at the UC Irvine/Long Beach State Regatta on Saturday, putting together an impressive team effort that led to a second-place finish in the Varsity Eight. The Tritons also finished fourth in the Varsity Four and Novice Eight and third in the Second Novice Eight and with a Lightweight Four in the “B” Varsity Four race. The Novice Four capped the event successfully for UCSD, posting the Tritons only win of the day during the final event at Newport Harbor.
“I am so proud of my boat and the others for really hammering it down and setting the bar incredibly high for this year,” said captain Kelly Hansen.
The Varsity Eight began the day at an expanded regatta that included UC Irvine, Long Beach State, Mills College and Chapman College, as well as a full program on the men's side. Getting off to a slow start, the Tritons had to dig in to move into a competitive position by the half way mark.
“We were last off the line, and the start felt a little off, but after the shift into our race pace, the boat began moving,” said six-seat Jaime Bigwood. “It felt really strong, and the first half of the race went by very quickly.”
Under-rating their competition by 2-6 strokes a minute, the Tritons settled to 32 strokes a minute, and moved through Mills and then Long Beach State. They pulled to within 3 seats of UC Irvine, where the two lead crews battled to take charge of the race. The Anteaters lifted the stroke rate from 34 to 38 a few moments before UC San Diego, giving them a head start on the sprint home. The Tritons responded, lifting their rating to a 36, but couldn't reel in the Anteaters. Both crews finished with an open water lead on the rest of the field, posting a record time of 6:31.4 for Irvine and 6:36 for UCSD. Long Beach State finished two lengths back, three lengths ahead of Mills College. UC San Diego's Second Eight finished fifth, racing up in the First Eight race.
In the First Eight, Jill Peacock did an excellent job stroking her first race, coxed by Amy Fan. Lauren Menzies sat in 7-seat, with Jaime Bigwood at 6, Alissa Kispersky at 5, Denise Kleckner at 4, Summer Austin at 3, Kelly Hansen at 2, and Caryn Urbanczyk at bow seat.
“I am so excited right now! Before the race started I thought to myself, ?how amazing would it be to call yourself a national champion?' Every time I felt tired or in pain that thought kept popping up. We still have a lot of room for improvement, but overall for a first race I am very optimistic,” said Kleckner. “Since we haven't practiced starts much, I am not too surprised that we came off behind and the fact that we walked the whole race at a lower stroke rate means we have the power.”
“It would have been nice to win, “ said Head Coach Pattie Pinkerton, “but we knew we would be coming up against a strong program that has begun its speed work a few weeks ahead of us. We use this early race to check our progress, and the team is pretty happy with were we are. They rowed a powerful race, and when we bring up the stroke rate, I expect we will find more speed. We still have work to do on our start and sprint, but the team is now very confident about their power and poise for the body of the race.”
Urbanczyk moved to the front of the boat, doubling up and stroking the Varsity Four, along with Laurel Copenbarger, Peacock and Kispersky. Leslie Nanninga coxed the V4+ to a 4th place finish against first place UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State.
“We were pretty exhausted after the Eight's race, but we felt like we had a strong race,” Peacock said. “We are still under-rating the field, so when we bring the rating up, we know we can take them.”
San Diego fielded a Lightweight Four in the “B” Varsity Four race, finishing 3rd behind Irvine and Santa Barbara, and several lengths ahead of Mills College.
“It was a good first race for the start of the season and I think it was a confidence booster,” said Andrea Lin of the Lightweight effort on the day.
The Novice squad posted the only victory of the day on the women's side, winning the Novice Four in the last race of the day. Troubled by a slow start, the crew had to catch the field, but put on some power moves in the third 500 to catch UC Santa Barbara. Rating several beats lower than leading crew Irvine, the crew of coxswain Denise Lem, stroke Brianna Patterson, 3-seat Maddie Donoghue, 2-seat Lilly Lee and bow Kali Toda maintained their poise and rhythm, and began moving through the UC Irvine crew. Lem called for a final sprint, and the Tritons surged to an open water win in the final 200 meters. The Novice Eight and Second Novice Eight finished 4th and 3rd in their respective races.
The Tritons will see most of these crews again in their next race at the Berg Cup Regatta on March 28, again taking place in Newport Harbor with a 7 a.m. scheduled start time.
Results and Line-ups:
VARSITY EIGHT
Coxswain: Amy Fan, Stroke-Jill Peacock, 7-Lauren Menzies, 6-Jaime Bigwood, 5-Alissa Kispersky, 4-Denise Kleckner, 3-Summer Austin, 2-Kelly Hansen, 1-Caryn Urbanczyk
2V8- C: Leslie Nanninga, 8-Jesi Bennett, 7-Wanda Chin, 6-Susanne Chang, 5-Crystal Lu, 4-Stacey Yates, 3-Danielle Dowler, 2-Triny Rios, 1-Katie Tanaka
1. UC Irvine 6:31.4
2. UC San Diego 6:36.0
3. CSU Long Beach 6:41.0
4. Mills College 6:50.0
5. UC San Diego 2V
NOVICE EIGHT
C: Katrina Paz, 8: Carolyn Belak, 7: Megan Simmons, 6: Paulina Alvarado, 5: Julia Parkinson, 4: Chelsea Bollinger, 3: Lisa Yen, 2: Paige Resnick, 1: Brigitte Ngo
1. UC Irvine 7:42.4
2. UC Santa Barbara 7:49.4
3. CSU Long Beach 8:00.0
4. UC San Diego 8:19.0
5. Mills 9:39.8
VARSITY FOUR
C: Leslie Nanninga, 4-Caryn Urbanczyk, 3-Jill Peacock, 2-Laurel Copenbarger, 1- Alissa Kispersky
1. UC Irvine 7:52.0
2. UC Santa Barbara 8:10.5
3. CSU Long Beach 8:13.0
4. UC San Diego 8:27.4
SECOND NOVICE EIGHT
C: Denise Lem, 8: Julie Montes, 7: Melissa Lau, 6: Melissa Reyes, 5: Jackie Espinosa, 4: Daisy Orta, 3: Ayla Nejad, 2: Anabel Jimenez, 1: Reanna Ho
1. UC Santa Barbara 8:03.3
2. CSU Long Beach 8:31.5
3. UC San Diego 8:36.8
VARSITY FOUR “B”
C; Alyssa Miyake, 4-Kavya Rao, 3-Kelly Temes, 2-Lynn Nguyen, Andrea Lin
1. UC Irvine 8:11.6
2. UC Santa Barbara 8:13.4
3. UC San Diego Ltwt's 9:03.6
4. Mills College 9:14.9
