San Diego Crew Classic, 2012: Recap and Review

GVSU holds off Notre Dame to win the Men's Cal Cup (Photo: B. Kitch)
The 2012 San Diego Crew Classic showcased some of the nation's top talent, and the athletes did not disappoint on Mission Bay last weekend. The racing was fierce, and when all was said and done, we felt pretty good about our picks, with a few notable exceptions. Let's take a look.

Men's Events

The Men's Varsity Eight Copley Cup:

As we anticipated, the Crimson were able to handle a very strong challenge from the Cal Bears, who led through the early stages of the race. Navy proved to be stronger than Stanford, who made use of an extremely unconventional rig (which made the Cardinal men's varsity eight one of the talking points of the regatta). Cornell and Michigan rounded out the final, in keeping with our predictions.

The Men's Varsity Eight Cal Cup:

Again in keeping with our predictions, Grand Valley State University took first place in a tight field (an entry that featured novice standout Nate Biolchini in the four seat–Biolchini recorded a 6:06.3 at CRASH-Bs in February). However, Drexel did not show the speed we anticipated, and the Fightin' Irish of Notre Dame had a great showing, and were perhaps only an equipment malfunction away from a Cal Cup victory. Six seat (and top Irish erg score) Zach Stackhouse had to stop for several strokes as the CLAM on his oar failed–he reached out, grabbed it, and threw it off while racing the first 500m–putting the Irish in fifth place for much of the first 1000m. They drew level with GVSU with 300m to go, but were unable to hold off the Lakers' late charge and took second place. Purdue came through with a solid third place, and will likely be a strong competitor through the second half of the season, having moved up an ACRA champion frosh class to the varsity squad this year.

Men's Collegiate Junior Varsity Eight:

While we expected Harvard to take this event, Cal were able to turn the tables following a loss in the varsity eight, winning by roughly a length over the Crimson. Also, showing more depth than last season, the Bears 'B' entry finished third and spoiled our pick of Cornell. Big Red didn't bring as much top end speed to this race as we expected, but will likely have their sights set on goals further down the line (head coach Todd Kennett knows how to deliver at the end of the season).

Men's Junior Eight (High School):

Marin absolutely dominated once again, winning by a comfortable margin over out pick for second place, Everett. Despite having shown early season speed, Los Gatos, our pick for third, failed to make the final, and St. Ignatius stepped up to the challenge, crossing the line ahead of perennial SoCal contenders Newport AC, Marina AC, and LBJC, respectively.

Women's Events

Women's Varsity Eight Jessop-Whittier Cup:

As we expected, the Women of Troy once again showed great early season speed, winning the varsity eight over Virginia by roughly eight seats to take the title for the second straight year. Our pick for third, Cal, was unable to hold off a resurgent crew from Washington, falling to fourth place, with UCLA edging Stanford into sixth place.

Women's Varsity Eight Cal Cup:

The Duke Blue Devils (our No. 2 seed) returned to Mission Bay for the first time since 2002, and did so in style, winning their event over Oregon St. and our No. 1 seed Oklahoma, respectively. The Iowa Hawkeyes did reach the final, but wound up in sixth place behind local favorite USD and a growing program at Tulsa.

Women's Collegiate Junior Varsity Eight:

The UCLA women's team may have been the story of the regatta–and we're not the only ones who think so (the Bruin women have gone from unranked in the previous CRCA/USRowing coaches' poll to tied for third overall with Washington). The Bruins entered the regatta having lost the six seat of their varsity eight to an injury sustained while cooking, so each of the crews was untested entering the fray in San Diego. The UCLA JV responded to adversity by taking the event by open water over our pick for No. 1 Washington, and Virgnia, respectively, with the Bruins having already gotten the better of Stanford in the varsity eight. Our picks for second and third, Cal and USC, fell to fifth and sixth to round out the final.

Women's Varsity Four:

Our No. 1 seed, Virginia, got the job done for Kevin Sauer, winning the event over a strong entry from Washington State and another fast combination from UCLA, which might have been in contention had it not been for a crab in the first 500m. Again, our picks for second and third, USC (last year's champ) and Washington, fell to fifth and sixth place, respectively, behind Tennessee in fourth place overall.

Women's Junior Eight (High School):

As expected the Oakland Strokes kept it rolling, taking first place by roughly seven seconds over a very young Connecticut Boat Club, who reversed our prediction with Marin, edging MRA into third place. Also as predicted, Upper Natoma made the final, taking fifth place overall.

Congrats to all those who raced over the weekend, and for complete results, please visit the official site of the San Diego Crew Classic. Thanks to all those whose hard work made the event such a success once again!

-RR

Trending posts this month

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b
Read more

Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? At Marin Rowing Association, Culture is Key

Image
Hands in after training  My alarm goes off—it’s 4:22am.  It’s been a while since I did this. Immediately, I think back to a college dorm room, rolling out of bed and running down the steps to carpool caravan to Marina Del Rey.  Not this time, though. It’s a Tuesday in late September, and I’m heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Greenbrae, California, where I’ll meet with the Marin Rowing Men’s Masters squad. Fortunately, it’s an unusually warm morning—and when I roll in, the boathouse is already buzzing with activity.  Launch time: 5:10. Heading out into the Bay before dawn The Marin Rowing Association program has both men’s and women’s masters boats competing to win at every event they attend. In the fall, that can only mean one thing: The Head Of The Charles .  The boat that Coach Rodrigo Rodrigues and I spend most of our time with is the Grand Masters eight—average age 60+. But that’s just one of five crews that launched with us that morning. Everyone’s up before 4:30am. So, wh
Read more

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States.
Read more

Video Of The Week: Holland Beker 2013

Image
This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland.  As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just ove
Read more

10 Rowing Machine Benefits For All

Image
The rowing machine goes back a long way. There have been various (and some very strange) iterations over the years, but the main benefit of the rowing machine has always remained the same: bringing the full-body training experience from the water on land.  Document Table of Contents: These days, with immersive experiences available through streamable workouts and flat screens (or even tablets and smartphones), the distance between land training and training on the water has shrunk. Of course, it's never going to be a 1:1 feeling from the dock to the boat, and rowers (typically with not-great ergs) are apt to point out that 'ergs don't float.' But again, that doesn't decrease their value to the individual, nor to the sport. Basic Rowing Machines Benefits For the uninitiated in the audience, there are some basic (and some very obvious) benefits to rowing machines, from a broad range of cardio and HIIT t
Read more