By Jessica Bach
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. “”mdash; The UCLA rowing team didn’t
come to the Pac-10 championships to conquer, but they did leave
quite an imprint.
In fact, if you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t
be excited about Sunday’s results at all; there were no
first-place finishes or any exciting pushes to overcome an
opponent.
But the results have meaning. They showed a new team fighting to
be recognized, proving it could no longer be disregarded and that
the Bruins are here to stay and fight.
The day started with UCLA’s surprising qualification for
the Varsity Four Grand Final after finishing third in the
preliminary heat. In the finals, the Bruins raced hard but came up
short at 8:20.70 to the bigger programs such as Cal, which won the
race.
“I am so pleased with their performance,” Bruin head
coach Amy Fuller said. “UCLA was well represented today, both
on and off the water, and they should be really proud of
that.”
The Novice Eight also qualified for their Grand Final. There,
they finished fifth in a time of 7:28.90 ““ 16 seconds behind
first-place Oregon State.
For both the Novice Eight and Varsity Four, the ability to
simply qualify for the Grand Final and compete with the top-ranked
teams demonstrated their growth.
“We weren’t taken seriously for a while, but we
showed them that UCLA can play with the big dogs,” junior Amy
Lidell said.
The Varsity and JV Eights both qualified for the Petite
Finals.
The JV finished in fourth place, but only six seconds separated
the top four boats of USC, Sacramento State, San Diego State and
UCLA.
The Varsity Eight had the most disappointing race as it finished
last in its final, and Loyola Marymount won the event. The Bruins
had hoped to finally beat the Lions, who had beaten them all year.
At their last meeting at last month’s Miller Cup, LMU edged
them by only a second.
“There were some close races that we just missed out
on,” Fuller said. “It is the mentally tough crews that
get their boats going, and that’s something we need to work
on so hopefully we can win those close races.”
UCLA finished sixth in the Pac-10 standings.
“A lot of teams are going to be scared next year,”
sophomore coxswain Kate Harbour said. “I think as a
first-year program, we really stepped up and did a great job moving
the program forward.”
The Pac-10 also recognized the achievements of the program by
naming sophomore Irene Condella to the all-conference team.
“I think that Irene has proven on and off the water what a
great athlete she is,” Fuller said. “For her weight,
she has the best urg score. She is a dependable person and deserves
this recognition.”