The last crews have finished "coming down the beach now" for the 51st San Diego Crew Classic, and if you missed it--or woke up this morning wishing you were still there--here's all your Sunday Crew Classic vibes in two reels:
From warming-up for the first big "Finals Day" of the spring...
Through how racing might've gone in more than a few crews...all the way to the post-race stop at the beer tent.
Only in San Diego, right?
Change of the Quad Guard for Youth Men
The Los Gatos men brought the heat, and the bragging rights in the quad, back to the west coast, beating out last year's champ Maritime.
The standard to win these races is high: Los Gatos stroke Leo Shetler stroked the US U19 four with in Paris last summer.
"This year our squad has been very competitive internally and the guys have risen to the challenge," saif LOs Gatos =coach Channing Walker. "Of our 8 uU9 YNC medalists from last year, 5 graduated and that has enabled an entirely different group of guys to take ownership of the team. Our two senior captains, Diego Lasso and Gavin Hartman, have done a great job of including the younger guys in the culture and pushing all the U19/17/16/15 guys to the standard of their consistent best effort.
"Our coaching staff was happy to see all the boats make the A final and to walk away with some wins, but the guys all understand that the end goal is Sunday in Sarasota, not in San Diego, and our next step as a program is to build fitness for our national qualifier at Natoma. This coming weekend we have the opportunity to race Capital and River City on the Championship Course and we are looking forward to testing possible combinations."
And Status-'Quad' for Youth Women
The Redwood Scullers women snapped up the Youth Quad again:
They had their own super-stroke: HOCR Youth Singles winner and 2022 U19 US sculler Olivia Petri. Behind Petri's rhythm, the Redwood quad put its stamp on this event yet again, and snapped up the win in the U17 Women's Quad for good measure, so the streak might just continue.
The Redwood quad--Ilaria Costell '24, Sofie Tafoya '25, Vivi Sun '24 and Olivia Petri '25--got together and had this to say to row2k:
"Going into the weekend and at the start we weren’t sure how the results would pan out but every day from practice to Sunday finals we found more connection together and chipped away a little more. We placed a big emphasis on staying internal and trusting the whole boat - to listen to each other’s feedback at practice and calls during race day.
"During the last 500, as we took the rate up staying internal and didn’t get frantic which allowed us to pull ahead, despite being down off the start.
"Since 2019, Redwood has brought home the Concept2 trophy (except 2021 Covid year) and we wanted to continue this legacy to prove our strength not only to ourselves but to the rowing community. Not only that, but we wanted to inspire our underclassmen, U17 athletes and whole team to keep chasing gold. To be able to celebrate this win with our whole team was the best feeling. When one boat wins, it feels as if our whole team won."
The Classic's College Throwdowns
The D1 women's racing for the Jessop-Whittier Cup had really emerged as the center-piece of finals day in the past few years. With the number of big-name men's programs making the trip to Mission Bay varying a lot the past few years--and down to zero for this year's Copley Cup--the women's field consistently features top-ten D1 teams throwing down and offering--maybe--a hint of who to watch out for at NCAAs in May.
Catch the replay of #3 Washington vs #4 Texas vs #7 Cal racing for the Jessop-Whittier Cup here.
Sometimes heats, like the past, are prologue, and the tight Saturday heats we looked at yesterday where Texas and Cal sparred all the way down the course while Washington cruised turned out to the exact template on Sunday: the Longhorns stormed out to their third Jessop-Whittier Cup, and only #7 Cal could really hang, out rowing their (admittedly early) ranking ahead of #3 Washington in lane one.
"The First Eight has some decent speed," Texas head coach Dave O'Neill told TexasSports.com, "They have good fitness, and the skill level is also quite high." The Longhorn squad swept the NCAA events and grabbed second behind Cal with the 3V in the Open Eight.
When asked why he brings regularly brings his crews to the Crew Classic, O'Neill said: "First, the competition is good. Racing Washington and Cal is really good for us. Also, I think it’s important to be at a big event like this. It’s the only race in the spring where juniors, collegiate and masters teams come together like this, so having a presence and being seen helps promote our team for the long run."
"All four crews raced really hard, and I'm really proud of the team," he added. "Coming away with three wins is terrific, but we're keeping things in perspective. Of course, it's good to have good results and go after it for two thousand meters after the months of training on the machines and small boats. You never really know how things will shake out once you really go for it, so we're in a good spot for right now."
And with a lot of hardware from the trophy tent:
Men's Cal Cup Mixes It Up
The final for the Men's Cal Cup featured an ecletic mix of crews which made for an electric race: a really open, all-comers brawl that had all kinds of bragging rights on the line. We had IRA varsities vs ACRA clubs, lightweights vs heavies, and even some frosh vs upperclassmen, thanks to the Cal Frosh in lane one.
Those Cal Frosh took the Cal Cup, and then topped their teammates in the Cal 4V in the Open 8 Anderson Borthwick Memorial Trophy later in the day. That was all part of a clean Cal sweep for the men from Berkeley on the weekend: not only did the Bear's 4V win the JV race here, but the top three Cal eights ran the table at the Pac-12 Invite against Syracuse, Wisconsin, and LaSalle.
Eights by Eight
When Mission Bay behaves itself, it is hard to beat the 8 eights across spectacle served up by the finals of the Youth Eights. It is also hard work to make those finals. Nineteen Youth Women's eights threw their hats in the ring, and Newport Aquatic Center emerged with the win.
On the Men's side, Marin outlasted Oakland Strokes to hoist San Diego Rowing Club Cup:
Notes from the Course
Next Level Start Line Poses - Co-ordinated dabbing? Pro level.
Good Haul - Club Nautico De San Juan, and its boatloads of Brown alums, picked up a few trophies, including the Copley Cup.
wild2k - Close up of the heron nest at the start. The chicks were huge...
...and fiesty, so basically heron teenagers, and mom looked like she can't wait for an empty nest.
HBD Luke - out at the airport as teams decamped, one shuttle driver--who was a character for sure--asked if it was anyone's birthday. The Purdue guys offered up Luke, and the driver organized the entire packed shuttle to sing to him, including all the Stanford lightweights. Big weekend for Luke, whether is was actually his birthday or not, because we are pretty sure he made into the Saturday galleries insta post, too.
Getaway Day Vibes - going through TSA security in your uni? That's peak San Diego Crew Classic, right there.
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