RowingRelated

The 2012 WIRA Championships are in the books, and it's time to take a look at how our picks and predictions turned out following the racing on Lake Natoma last weekend. The story of the regatta was the team from Gonzaga on both the men's and women's sides, as the Bulldogs medaled in no less than seven events, winning gold in five. Orange Coast College also performed very well, taking first place in three events with a very small squad. Let's take a look, shall we? Paul Prioleau's OCC Pirates got the better of the field in the men's varsity club eight, as we predicted, in a time of 6:02.6, roughly 1.5 seconds ahead of UCSB (another crew we picked to make a podium appearance). UCLA, our pick for second, faded to fourth behind UCI. In the men's varsity eight, our pick for first place, UCSD, did not show the same speed as earlier in the season at Crew Classic (when they got the better of Gonzaga), and found themselves in third place in a five-boat final, behi...

The Coast frosh head to the line at Redwood Shores (Photo: B. Kitch) There is a great deal to talk about in the rowing world these days, with rogue swimmers, Olympic selection, and World Cups around the corner, all of which makes it hard to keep pace with the results as all the regattas and championships begin to crowd one another into the month of May. SIRAs, which took place last weekend, featured a great deal of very close racing between teams in that hard-to-define place between the top-tier varsity programs and top-tier clubs, while WIRAs will feature still more such teams this weekend in Sacramento. [Disclaimer/Warning: The following content contains opinions.] SIRAs Review:  The 2012 SIRAs showcased the increasing depth of the club field as a very strong Virginia program continues to improve under head coach Frank Biller . Biller's boys fought a varsity program in George Washington all the way to the line in the varsity eight, with the Colonials eventually edging t...

The No. 3 Cal Bears were in action at home over the weekend, welcoming the No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers to Redwood Shores for a traditional early season match-up. The Bears are tuning up for the rivalry race with the Washington Huskies next weekend (21 April), also at Redwood Shores, while the Badgers came out to California looking to test their early season speed, with considerable success. The video, shot from the bridge which is (roughly) at the 1000m mark, includes clips from the men's varsity eight race (as well as MV8 match-ups between Stanford and UCSD , and Orange Coast College and USD ), the 2V8, and the frosh eight events. The Badgers battled very well in the varsity eight, but fell by roughly a length to Cal, though Wisconsin was able to reverse this result in the 2V8, taking the event by approximately three seconds over a crew that defeated Harvard at the San Diego Crew Classic just two weeks ago.  Coming up tomorrow on RR: Video interviews with Cal's Wyatt All...

Frosh 8 Grand Final in the last 250 (Photo: N. D'Antoni) Frosh 8 Grand Final last 100m (Photo: N. D'Antoni) Coast Frosh lead Gonzaga and UCSD (Photo: N. D'Antoni) Coast margin in Frosh 8 GF (Photo: N. D'Antoni) Varsity 8 GF - UCSD and Gonzaga (Photo: N. D'Antoni) UCSD maintains lead over Gonzaga (Photo: N. D'Antoni) UCSD and Gonzaga approach the finish (Photo: N. D'Antoni) Big thanks to Nick for the photos!

This year's WIRA Championship Regatta featured some great racing, close finishes, and a few surprising performances. Last week on RR, we made our predictions for the event, with UCSD entering as a heavy favorite coming off strong performances at Crew Classic and SIRAs. Let's see how we, and they, did over the weekend. In the Varsity 8, UCSD took top honors, as we predicted , in a time of 5:52.6. However, they did so with an emergent and rejuvenated Gonzaga crew pressing them from start to finish, rather than by open water. The Zags have evidently found 10 seconds over the past two weeks, as their most recent performance prior to WIRAs saw them lose to Washington State's Varsity 8 by over five seconds at the Fawley Cup on April 16th. This time, it was the Zags finishing some five seconds ahead of WSU, and crossing the line just 1.2 seconds behind the Tritons, to take second place overall. UCLA took third in their first ever appearance at WIRAs, and was the top club team...

Following closely on SIRAs, the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association holds its Championship Regatta this weekend at Lake Natoma, CA. Based on the results from 2011, there are some clear front runners on the men's side for WIRAs , as well as some newcomers with a chance to make the Grands in the Varsity 8. The favorites to win this year in the Varsity 8 are the Tritons from UCSD , likely by open water. Zach Johnson's boys have made steady improvements throughout the year (as we've discussed ), and are coming off solid results from both Crew Classic and SIRAs -- they'll be looking to dominate this regatta and cap off a solid season on the West Coast as they prep for IRAs this June. Beyond that, there are a number of teams with the potential to make the Grands this year, all within a second or two of one another. Some squads that could find themselves in the hunt are UCLA, UCI, Orange Coast, UCD, Washington State, and Sacramento State (coached by UW alum Dustin Kra...

This year's Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship Regatta boasted one of the deepest men's fields in recent memory, which made for a very exciting weekend, filled with intense racing despite the storms and less-than-ideal weather that delayed racing at times. In the Varsity 8 things got started with a bang, with crews fighting to secure the top spots in Saturday afternoon's semifinals. All the top seeds advanced with relative ease in the first three heats. The fourth heat had the most drama as a feisty Notre Dame crew put the pressure on GWU all the way down the course and fought valiantly for the win hoping to secure an easier semifinal, but came up just 0.3 seconds short at the line. The semifinals were filled with very competitive racing in a two-to-advance format. Delaware was the biggest loser in the semis missing out on the final by just less than a second and were only 1.1 seconds away from semi winner Virginia . We were very impressed by Delaw...