Sunday's Grand Finals in San Diego saw some early season upsets in the Copley and Jessop-Whittier Cups - if you can have an upset in what is the first race of the season for many of the crews involved. Pre-season rankings are often thrown out the window once you're lined up six across.
In the Jessop-Whittier Cup for women's Collegiate Varsity Eights, the #4 ranked Washington Huskies used a clean and powerful start to move out to half length lead on the field in the first 500 meters. They were unable to break free of #6 Michigan in lane one, and the Wolverines used a strong, well raced second thousand to win by nearly length. It was the second big win for Michigan in as many weeks, at the far reaches of the country at that following their victory over Brown and Princeton on March 28 on the Carnegie. Wisconsin fought off USC and Oregon State for the bronze medal. It's looking to be a strong year for the Big 10, with both Michigan and Wisconsin finishing in the top three both the Women's 1V and 2V events.
Following Saturday's men's Copley Cup heats, Washington and Stanford drew the favored insides lanes for the final, but it was California who caught the entire field (and row2k) napping. The Bears exploded off the line and took an entire length on the field in the first 250 and extended to open water by the thousand rowing an aggressive 37 strokes per minute. Washington and Harvard tried to reel them in but ran out of water. Stanford finished fourth, with Brown and Princeton rounding out the final.
It was a perfect start for new Cal head coach Mike Teti, though not completely unexpected. The way the Bears took control of the race from the first stroke was very reminiscent of the way many of Teti's USA squads raced, and now sets the stage for the IRA's first trip to the west coast in June.
In the men's and women's Cal Cup races, UC San Diego won the men's title and St. Joseph's won a close race to take the women's event. UC San Diego got the lead in the second 500 and never looked back, winning by a length over the University of San Diego. St. Joesph's battled Kansas State and Sacramento State the entire 2000 meters, before winning by half a length.
The brand new Oklahoma women's program made their major regatta debut this weekend, fielding an entry in the women's collegiate novice where they represented Sooner Nation well. They were the only non-Pac 10 team to make the Grand Final, and finished 5th out of 21 crews.
Some interesting sights and sounds at the regatta on Sunday:
Comments | Log in to comment |
05/14/2009 8:32:06 PM