SAN DIEGO - The UBC Thunderbirds made good on their Saturday heat results with some impressive finishes in the A finals on Sunday at the San Diego Crew Classic, a regatta that featured some of the top US collegiate programs.
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"It's great to see how our program is doing against some of the top powerhouses of university rowing in the world," said UBC men's head coach
Mike Pearce. "Most of the crews we are racing, in both the men's and women's events, are stacked bow to coxswain with $60,000 a year scholarship athletes and we are right there with them. This is a real a testament to the quality of the athletes and program we can put to together in Canada.”
The Premiere Copley Cup Varsity men's invitational race was dominated by the perennial national power California, which won in a time of 5:45.4. Stanford and Pennsylvania drew clear of the Thunderbirds by the 1000-metre mark but UBC hung gamely on driving back on Penn, taking the fight right to the finish line. UBC ended the race just 0.31 seconds back of the Quakers, finishing fourth overall in 5:57.98.
"It would have a been a bit of redemption to have beaten Penn, as 58 years ago it was Penn who defeated UBC in the final of the Henley Grand, a race that still stands out in history as one of UBC's all-time great finishes," said Pearce.
The varsity 8+ was coxswain
Mark Goudie, followed by graduating athlete and stroke seat
Graeme Blaskovich,
Robert Gage (7),
Alex Janzen (6),
Maxwell Lattimer (5),
Evan Cheng (4),
Valentin Dunsing (3), Benjamin Coull (2), and bow seat
Angus Todd
Following in the footsteps of the varsity men, UBC's junior varsity men's crew had an outstanding final also finishing in fourth, ahead of Gonzaga and Stanford. California again was dominant claiming the first two spots followed by third place Oregon State.
"The JVs had a great regatta, we came down here with large squad as a step to build depth in the program and this crew did a great job rising to the challenge," said Pearce.
Finally, the novice men put in a strong showing in their Saturday evening B Final, placing 11th overall.
"This is a true bow-to-cox novice crew so this is a solid result in the largely freshman field that include rowers with significant experience," remarked Pearce.
In the A Final of the Collegiate Varsity Cal Cup, a race stacked full of USA scholarship athletes, the UBC women got off to a slow start. Racing from lane three, the girls stuck to their race plan and slowly reeled in crew after crew, finding their momentum at the start of the second 500 metres. A final push for the finish nearly gave the girls open water over Loyola, and UBC finished the race in third. Placing ahead of Loyola and Bates, just behind the dominant first place University of Miami, and the University of San Diego crews.
“Its always exciting to come down to San Diego at the end of our season to see how we stack up against some of the best university crews in the States and try to take a chip off their shoulder," said women's head coach
Craig Pond.
“This year we came to San Diego as an unknown program and as a result they ranked us 13th – instead we're leaving with a bronze, something no other Canadian crew has done at this regatta."
After Saturday's third-place showing in the qualifying race, the junior varsity women were assigned lane six for Sunday's A final. Racing from the outside the women worked away at their competition and, like the varsity women, crossed the line in third.
“Everyday this crew's stepped up to the challenge of training along side the varsity 8+ and as a result this is the fastest JV women's crew we've had in all my years coaching at UBC," said Pond. The novice women's 4+, racing in a varsity event, battled it out in a combination varsity/JV c final Saturday afternoon.
This regatta rounds out the season for the UBC rowers who'll take to the water this summer to train for and use the Royal Canadian Henley as another stepping-stone on the way to National Championships next fall.
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