NEWPORT HARBOR, Calif. - The UC San Diego women's crew entered the spring season in Newport this weekend, facing off against Orange Coast College, UC Irvine, University of San Diego, Long Beach State and Chapman College at the Berg Cup, held in Newport Beach.
The Triton women entered all six events, with the Second Varsity and Novice squad showing improvements against previous foes Irvine and Long Beach State, but were unable to hold off cross-town rival University of San Diego and host Orange Coast College. The Varsity Eight had a tougher day, holding on to the field in the first half of the race, but fading in the second half, just holding off a late charge by Long Beach State to finish 4th. USD captured the Berg Cup, eclipsing 2nd place OCC by two boat lengths. UC Irvine took an early lead on the Tritons, who fought back to a 2-seat lead by 1400 meters, under rating the rest of the field, rowing at 32 strokes a minute. The Anteaters jacked it up to 36 strokes a minute, then 38, and moved away from the San Diego crew to take 3rd.
“We were a little disappointed in the outcome,” said Head Coach Pattie Pinkerton. “We held our own against Irvine, but we expected to improve, especially after some fabulous sessions we've had during Spring Break Row. In actual fact, the Spring Row left us without the ?spring'. The women tell me they felt good during the first half of the race, but couldn't find more during the second half. We had a pretty aggressive training program over the quarter break and the Varsity hasn't fully recovered.”
Pinkerton went on to describe the seat racing the Varsity has gone through to select the fastest line-ups for the first and second Varsity Eight.
“We line up two crews, and set the rating, and send them off, full speed, and take times for 1000 meters. We pull them together, change two people, and send them off again, and measure the gap between boats from the first race, and compare it to the gap between boast in the second race. If the result changes, even slightly, and all other factors are the same, the woman that makes her boat go faster wins the seat race,” said Pinkerton. “From Monday through Wednesday, we did thirty seat races. It was pretty amazing. We had to do it, and we knew the Berg Cup was coming at the end of Spring Row, but our goal is to find the fastest overall line-up for the Northwest Collegiate Rowing Invitational next weekend. The NCRC's is an important regatta for NCAA Regional rankings and NCAA Nationals Selection.”
The massive seat racing program helped the Second Varsity Eight, who improved their times dramatically against the other crews. Five seat Andrea Lin said the seat racing helped her in her focus,
“I feel like I really hit both technique and power, one wasn't sacrificed for the other. Oddly enough, I think all the seat races helped in that respect a lot,” said Lin. “All in all, it was a great race and great start to the season.”
The Novice Eights also showed great improvement, with the First Novice Eight taking third place behind University of San Diego and victor Orange Coast College, finishing ahead of UC Irvine and Long Beach State. Three weeks ago the Novice Eight finished 20 seconds behind Long Beach State and 40 seconds behind UC Irvine. During this regatta, the Novice Eight edged Irvine by .3 seconds and walked through Long Beach early on, with the UC boats building a four length over Beach. The Second Novice Eight finished two boats lengths behind Long Beach three weeks ago in the Second Novice Eight, but turned it around this weekend, finishing 25 seconds ahead of Long Beach. University of San Diego proved too strong, taking out the event with a time of 7:24.5.
In the Varsity Four and Novice Four, the Tritons rolled out their lightweight (under 130 pounds) crews, giving them a chance to test line-ups before NCRC's next weekend. UC Irvine won the Varsity Four, with UCSD coming in 3rd, and OCC won the Novice Four, with the UCSD Novice Lightweights 4th.
The Tritons will go into a recovery training week as Spring Term begins this week, and both crews face nationally ranked competition in regattas next weekend. The Varsity travels to Vancouver, Washington for the NCRC's next week, facing off against #1 ranked Western Washington and #4 ranked Dowling College; while the Novice squad meets a full field of nationally ranked crews in the San Diego Crew Classic next weekend.
Results: (Increasing head winds affected times)
WOMEN'S VARSITY 4
1. UC Irvine 7:36.0
2. U. of San Diego 7:48.23
3. UC San Diego 8:48.38
Coxswain: Amy Fan; 4-Kav Rao, 3- Kelly Temes, 3-Katie Tanaka, 1- Lynn Nguyen (Lightweight Four)
WOMEN'S NOVICE 8
1. Orange Coast College 7:04.4
2. U Of San Diego 7:11.08:
3. UC San Diego 7:27.0
C: Katrina Paz, 8: Brianna Patterson, 7: Megan Simmons, 6: Carolyn Belak, 5: Julia Parkinson, 4: Paulina Alvarado, 3: Lisa Yen, 2: Lilly Lee, 1: Brigitte Ngo-Trinh
4. UC Irvine 7:27.3
5. Long Beach State 7:38.0
WOMEN'S SECOND NOVICE 8
1. U. of San Diego 7:24.5
2. UC San Diego 7: 45.2
Coxswain: Alyssa Miyake 8: Paige Resnick; 7: Maddie Donoghue; 6: Melissa Reyes, 5: Jackie Espinosa, 4: Chelsea Bollinger, 3: Melissa Lau, 2: Daisy Orta, 1: Kali Toda
3. Long Beach State 8:10.12
WOMEN'S NOVICE 4
1. OCC 8:04.00
2. Chapman College 8:29.07
3. UC Irvine 8:43.08
4. UC San Diego 8:59.7
C:Kav Rao, 4: Julie Montes, 3: Katie Tanaka, 2: Anabel Jimenez, 1: Reanna Ho
(Lightweight Four)
WOMEN'S SECOND VARSITY 8
1. OCC 7:32.9
2. UC San Diego 7:59.7
Coxswain: Amy Fan, 8-Jesi Bennett, 7-Wanda Chin, 6-Susanne Chang, 5-Andrea Lin, 4-Stacey Yates, 3-Danielle Dowler, 2-Triny Rios, 1-Crystal Lu
WOMEN'S VARSITY 8
1. U.of San Diego 7:05.9
2. OCC 7:10.9
3. UC Irvine 7:23.1
4. UC San Diego 7:29.3
Coxswain: Leslie Nanninga, 8-Jill Peacock, 7-Lauren Menzies, 6-Jaime Bigwood, 5-Denise Kleckner, 4-Alissa Kispersky, 3-Summer Austin, 2-Kelly Hansen, 1-Caryn Urbanczyk
5. Long Beach State 7:29.8
Injured: Laurel Copenbarger; ILL-Glorianna Caves
