By Jessica Bach
Daily Bruin Contributor
It wasn’t a normal pre-game warm-up for the women’s
rowing team.
Ten minutes before the start, the Bruins ““ accompanied by
their husbands ““ looked after their after their children as
their kids raced around the boat house. One even breast-fed her
baby.
But then again, this wasn’t a normal race.
Saturday’s event showcased Bruin vs. Bruin in the Alumni
race, featuring the 1991 Pac-10 championship alumni team against
the current women’s rowing team.
“It felt great to be back in the water again,”
alumnus and Olympic rower Catriona Fallon said. “They looked
tough and we were a little tired. You know it’s the endurance
thing that goes with age.”
For most of the women, it had been over a decade since they had
rowed, but the 1000-meter race didn’t indicate many
weaknesses as they lost to the Varsity A boat by only two seats off
the open water.
“They were great and it was a lot fun out there, but they
are super competitive,” senior Jenn Corey Ruiz said. “I
think it’s part of rowing as a sport ““ you go out there
and everyone is having fun and talking but when we got to the start
line, everything stopped and it was all about the race.”
The exhibition meet served as a precursor to the Bruins’
season and allowed them a way to ease into competition mode after a
winter lapse.
“It felt really good to race again,” sophomore Irene
Condella said. “We are rowing a lot better than we were last
year; our fitness level is also up a lot more than it
was.”
As this is the first season since 1992 in which women’s
rowing is a varsity sport, the alumni felt this meeting would be a
way to voice their support for their alma mater.
“We were the last crew that rowed under the program in
“˜91,” Fallon said. “When it came back as part of
the UCLA program we wanted to get everyone back together to support
the team.”
“This has been just so much fun,” head coach Amy
Fuller said. “I am just so grateful to them for coming out.
They looked fabulous and they still got it; you know it was really
inspiring for our girls.”
The friendly competition against a former championship team also
served to be more of an encouraging meeting. For fun, after their
first race against each other, the two boats interchanged rowers
and went for another round of racing.
“It was so fun to row with them, just having the
experience of rowing with Olympic rowers.” Corey Ruiz said.
“You could just feel the power in the boat with them.
“They are like my heroes and I hope I am half of what they
are in ten years.”
Despite the long absence from each other and the water as well
as the addition of children and husbands, Fallon describes it as
the same it always was.
“Everyone looks the same, everyone looks in shape. And we
still got it.”