By Jessica Bach
Daily Bruin Contributor
The women’s rowing team fell to USC 5-2 on Saturday when
they traveled to Wilmington, Calif., to compete against their
crosstown rivals. The Bruins also enlarged their deficit to the
Trojans in the Lexus Gauntlet Challenge 52.5-35.
Even before this weekend, the Bruins knew it would be an uphill
battle for them against the powerhouse USC team. With this being
the first year for the UCLA rowers competing at varsity level,
going against a team with a long-standing strong program and many
scholarship rowers is a tough challenge. Acknowledging this, the
team focused less on winning and more on the personal goals.
“We did what we expected,” UCLA head coach Amy
Fuller said. “We aimed to come in 30-40 secs behind USC, and
that’s what we did.”
The Varsity 8 did hold with their expectations, coming in at
7:11.9, behind USC’s 6:36.0 that gave them three of their
total points.
The Bruins scored one of their two points when the Varsity 4
boat beat USC with a time of 8:34.8 to the Trojans’
8:46.9.
This meet was the first competition for the quintet composed of
Jennifer Mitamura, Kathy Gallagher, Lauren Hamann, Alana Rattray
and coxswain Valerie Rodriguez.
“I knew that if we put up a decent lineup together we
might be able to race with them,” Fuller said in a press
release. “I was really pleased to see that we (Varsity 4)
were able to do that. They had a good row, and they haven’t
practiced very much together at all, so for their first time rowing
the four, I was pretty pleased with their performance.”
UCLA also scored with the Novice 8 boat coming in at 7:20.4, in
front of the USC “˜A’ at 7:27.0 and USC “˜B’
at 8:02.6.
“I’m happy with the Novice 8’s
performance,” Fuller said. “I think they’re
coming along. We still need to work on our stroke rate, cadence and
attack.”
The results of the meet advanced USC’s position in the
Lexus Gauntlet Challenge, which they now lead by seven and a half
points over the Bruins.
The challenge is a season-long competition between the two
schools, in which points are awarded for each head-to-head
contest.
“We will not beat USC,” Fuller said. “Where
they are in their program compared to where we are, it is just not
going to happen.
“But we are trying to improve every time we are on the
water, whether that is competition or practice. Its just not going
to happen overnight.”
“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;
Next up for the rowing team will be the San Diego Crew Classic.
Competition will take place all day, starting on April 6 and
continuing on April 7.