San Diego Crew Classic, 2013: Recap and Review

Dramatic skies over Mission Bay (Photo: B. Kitch) 
The 40th edition of the Crew Classic in San Diego was all about depth. There was no clearer example of this than the performance of the USC Trojans, who swept the women's NCAA DI events and set a new standard for performance on Mission Bay. Cal and Virginia also posted very strong results, and we'll be expecting their speed to continue to increase as we draw closer to championship racing season. Also as expected, Washington and UCLA were also very much part of the conversation—this looks to be another very strong year in the Pac-12 (perhaps the best ever depth in the conference, from top to bottom).

On the men's side, Cal was dominant—another very deep team with a ton of upside coming from strong sophomore and junior classes, including 2013 Crash-B winner Christian Kader and emerging talent Carter Crowe. The Cal men's second varsity posted the second third fastest time of the day on Sunday (behind only the Copley Cup-winning Golden Bear varsity eight and the Stanford varsity crew*), while their B entry in the men's 2V final took second place in the event. In the collegiate club events, USCB had a great regatta, winning both the men's Cal Cup and the Secretary of the Navy Cup (men's lightweight eight) events within 20 minutes, while the UCSB varsity women took second in the women's collegiate DII/DIII /Club event, and won the novice eight at the DII/DIII/Club level as well—a testament to the increasing depth and competitiveness of the Gauchos' program.

Miami took top honors in the women's Cal Cup, ahead of local favorites USD and British Columbia, respectively.**

At the junior level, there were a number of closely contested finals, setting up grudge matches at the regional and national level in the coming weeks and months. Marin's junior men reasserted themselves after being beaten in the varsity eight for the first time in roughly three years by Long Beach Juniors at the Faultline Faceoff in Oakland last month. In San Diego, however, Marin once again looked like the team to beat, posting an impressive 6:01.56 to win the event, with LBJC taking second place just under six seconds back, and Oakland Strokes a length back in third. The Marin junior women enjoyed similar success in the varsity eight, edging defending national champs Oakland into second place by just over a length to take the title. Marina Aquatic Center also posted an impressive result, finishing just 0.26 seconds back of Oakland.

As usual, the masters events at the regatta were a lot of fun, with a number of Olympians in action battling it out for bragging rights in the beer garden.

Notes: Our Video Of The Week is forthcoming, and you can view full results from the massive weekend of racing in San Diego on the official website of the Crew Classic.

*Update: The times posted to the Crew Classic website for the Copley Cup are currently incorrect—here are the "more correct" times thanks to row2k:
http://row2k.com/news/news.cfm?ID=79522#.UWNX-6vF2JU

**Updated & corrected 4/9/2013

-RR

Popular posts from this blog

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

"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

RR Interview: Nick Trojan's New Feature on Yale Men's Rowing

Image
Nick Trojan's latest feature documentary is twice as long as his previous work—but leaves you wanting more, just the same.  There’s a new feature in Nick Trojan’s series, taking an inside look at top-tier college rowing programs in the US. This time, Trojan focused his project on Yale and the legendary coach Steve Gladstone, blending outstanding camerawork with one of rowing’s most compelling stories.  Having uploaded the video to YouTube only two weeks ago, it’s already approaching 70k views. And for good reason.  RR sat down recently to talk through it all with Trojan in an exclusive interview, from origins to development and finally a finished product—as well as what might come next. Here’s what we learned. Navigating shifting waters Elite rower turned filmmaker Nick Trojan’s new feature, titled simply, “Yale Men’s Rowing,” was years in the making.  “The initial idea was to do the same kind of rinse-and-repeat that we had done with Harvard and Cal,” Trojan says, “but I think wha
Read more

Video Of The Week: Holland Beker 2013

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 over
Read more

Best Rowing Drills: 5 Favorites of Olympic Champion Esther Lofgren

Image
Lofgren training in the single (Photo courtesy of Esther Lofgren) Olympic gold medalist Esther Lofgren is no stranger to success on the water. In addition to her podium-topping performance with the U.S. women's eight in London, Lofgren also won two world titles (2010, 2011), with her first international medal—a bronze—coming in the women's straight four in 2006. Here, Lofgren shares some insight into the drills that have helped her progress technically along the way.
Read more