The 2015 WIRA Championships: UC Irvine, Stanford Top Varsity Fields

UC Irvine launches for the final (Photo courtesy of A.J. Brooks)
The UC Irvine men and Stanford women continued their recent run of success at WIRAs over the weekend, with the Anteaters taking first place in the men's varsity eight (just as they did in 2013), while the Cardinal swept all three eights events they entered. For both programs, however, it has also been a year of adjustments, as newly appointed head coach Derek Byrnes took the reins in Palo Alto last October, and UCI's A.J. Brooks is in his first year as head coach. But you wouldn't know it from the margin of victory, in either case.

"We came back with about nine guys total for the returning varsity," Brooks explains, "and we're ending WIRAs now with four eights worth of guys [including a JV and two novice eights]." Not only have Brooks and the Anteaters built the program, they've built momentum through the course of the season—at Crew Classic, they saw their Southern California rivals UC Santa Barbara sprint to victory in the men's Cal Cup, while UCI finished a close fourth overall. "Some seniors are graduating, but we've got some young freshmen with big goals in mind coming into the program, which is great." Like most club rowing programs, none of the athletes have any previous rowing experience, but the year's hard work, guided by Brooks (a four-time IRA champion with the University of Washington) is already paying off—the Anteaters defeated varsity and club crews alike en route to victory on Lake Natoma.



"The building blocks have been there all year. I really push the bottom-up mentality—for the varsity to be fast, the second novice [eight] had to be fast; the first novice had to be fast; the JV had to be fast. We're really striving to try to build big-program speed, and I think that everyone had a big part to play in terms of the early season in San Diego—everyone showing up and being really attentive, really taking care of business down there. I think it gave the varsity the right kind of momentum," he says. "Going into this race, we were very ready to compete—very ready to show our speed." It was also a good way to bring the new recruits into the fold: "It shows that it is possible, that it can be done."

The victory vaulted UCI to no. 4 in the RowingRelated ACRA rankings this week, leap-frogging UC Santa Barbara. No doubt program founder and Olympic champion Duvall Hecht is suitably pleased.

On the women's side, it was a clean sweep for a Stanford lightweight program that has come back from a bit of a slow start at the Head Of The Charles to the top of their game so far in 2015—the Cardinal got things going in San Diego with their fifth straight victory over a field that included a tough Boston University squad, and haven't looked back since. Stanford made the trip east once again this year to Boston to take on Radcliffe, and this time emerged on top, before heading to Sacramento and taking on the WIRA field.

And, the results were the same—taking on an open weight field, the Stanford lightweights took home the varsity eight title by roughly a length over the field, with LMU, Saint Mary's, and Sacramento State tightly packed behind them. The JV eight again saw the Cardinal finish ahead of the pack, though by a slightly narrower margin of two seconds, while the frosh eked out a close win just one second in front of the University of San Diego.

You can read more about the Stanford experience of the 2015 WIRA Regatta via the official website of Stanford Athletics. And keep up to date on the UCI men's program via their Facebook page.

-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

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

So, are Naked Rowing Calendars a Thing Now?

Image
Warwick rowers are all in again this year (Photo courtesy of Warwick Boat Club)  The phenomenon started four years ago with the Warwick Rowing men's squad. Then, the following year, the Warwick women's team joined the fray. Now, Newcastle University's men and women are back on the naked calendar train. So, the question is, have rowing and naked calendars become a thing? The above video features the 2014-2015 Warwick women's squad—the third edition of the calendar , and, from the looks of it, the raciest. However, perhaps not so racy as that of the 2014-2015 Warwick men (see below). But raciness aside, all four of these teams have chosen worthy charities and have gone "the full monty" to make sure that those causes have received considerable contributions. The Warwick women contribute to Macmillan Cancer Support —a cause for which Warwick reports it has donated some £5,000. The Warwick men? Sport Allies —a charity that combats homophobia in spor...
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 ...
Read more

Winter Workouts: Why Do Rowers Fear the Erg?

Image
Op-Ed from the RowingRelated Editorial Staff Friend. Not foe. (Illustration: B. Kitch) I am really frustrated by our sport when it comes to the erg being viewed as a torture device rather than a helpful tool that people can enjoy. This negative mindset, which is extremely contagious, plagues the sport, preventing athletes from training to their potential and possibly serving as one of the reasons that careers in rowing, at every level, are often so short. When compared to other endurance sports, I have not encountered an equal level of disdain for such fundamental mental and physical endurance training. My main problem is that everywhere I turn in the rowing community, whether it's high school rowers, college athletes, or even national team hopefuls, I hear of people dreading the erg. I've never heard about a cross country runner 'dreading' a track workout. True, basketball and football players may dread running wind sprints or other such conditioning acti...
Read more