March 23, 2005

The USD Women's Varsity Eight traveled to Lake Natoma in Sacramento this past weekend to get an early-season look at their West Coast Conference competition in the West Coast Conference Challenge. All races were held despite gusty winds, heavy rain and even some stinging hail! The Toreros first challenger was Santa Clara University Saturday morning. The team handled the Broncos eight easily, finishing 20 seconds ahead. Saturday afternoon was a tough one as the eight suffered their first loss of the season in a dual with Gonzaga University.

In a stroke of bad luck, the Toreros Eight, rowing in the windy outside lane, was hit with a stunning cross-wind gust, and smacked into the 1000 meter buoy. The crew, which had been leading to that point in the race, had difficulty regaining their composure, and Gonzaga promptly took advantage of the situation. The Toreros finished 7 seconds behind the Bulldogs.

Sunday morning brought a new level of competition with a fast race against Cal State Sacramento. The Hornets, rowing on their home course, dominated the regatta winning every one of their women's events of the weekend, including their race against USD's Varsity Eight. The Torero's were scheduled to race St. Mary's College in the afternoon, but the Gaels forfeited the race saying they had learned enough about their speed against USD on March 5th when the USD Eight won by 27 seconds.

Eager for another race and another chance to test themselves, the USD Women challenged the USD Novice Men's Eight to a race. The men obliged and were started 20 seconds behind the women. The women rowed a strong, aggressive piece and succeeded in holding the men at bay, reaching the finish line 7 seconds ahead! Interestingly, the USD Women posted a 7:06.7, the exact same time as the Gonzaga Women's Eight who came down the course immediately after them, racing Santa Clara.

"This was an excellent early-season opportunity for us to assess our mastery of what we have been focusing on up to this point in the season," commented Head Coach, Joan O'Hara. "We under-stroked all of our competition by 4 to 5 beats, rowing at a solid 30, and simply focusing on length, connection, and power-per-stroke. We are just now starting to get into the racing phase of our training where we will be bringing-up our stroke-rating, working on sophisticated racing strategies, and getting into that racing mentality of developing a `killer instinct.' This weekend the women showed that they have really maximized everything we have worked on to date. Finishing just 7 seconds off Gonzaga, despite a mishap, with basically no race preparation is outstanding. We are extremely excited to see the Bulldogs again at the Conference Championship. We feel we have a very good chance of defeating them this year."

The Torero's next event is the Berg Cup in Newport Beach this weekend, March 26th.

Weekend Results
USD 7:20
Santa Clara 7:40

Sac State 6:47
USD 7:02

Gonzaga 7:41
USD 7:48

USD Men 6:53
USD Women 7:06