SAN DIEGO – Racing on the home waters of Mission Bay, No. 25 San Diego Men's Rowing two entered eights captured strong performances at the highly-touted San Diego Crew Classic over the weekend.
In the Marine Corps Men's Collegiate 2V8+ Cup grand final on Saturday, the Toreros finished on the podium with a second-place finish. In the loaded field of the Men's Collegiate Varsity 8+ Active&Fit Now Cal Cup, USD's first varsity eight used a first-place finish in their preliminary heat Saturday to qualify for the grand final, in which they placed fourth.
On Saturday, the first varsity eight of coxswain
Jonah McDonnell, stroke seat
Derek Hissong,
Dawson Hein,
Jacob Zelenko,
Rex Bales,
Gable Krich, Jadyn Conover,
Sam Pigott, and bow seat
Stephen Sayler kicked off the day winning it's heat with a gap to the rest of the field, finishing in 6:06.89.
"We knew it was going to be a fight early with UCLA, but [USD] made a couple statements," USD Head Coach
Bart Thompson said. "The guys did a really nice job with their composure. Just walked through them in the middle, ended up with a really nice, solid margin of victory."
In the other preliminary of the Saturday, the second varsity eight of coxswain
Nick Lee, stroke seat
Joe Tortella,
Marco Altamura,
Jacob Corfey,
Owen Park,
Aiden Domingo,
Blake Luehrman,
Colin Mulkerrins and bow seat
Kacen Hamada were racing for lanes for the next day's final.
In the final Sunday, the Toreros edged a neck-and-neck battle with former WCC foes Gonzaga to claim a silver medal, crossing the 2K finish line in 6:18.75, only behind No. 20 UC San Diego.
In the first varsity eight's grand final on Sunday, the Toreros paced to a fourth-place finish in a time of 6:08.59. The Toreros were 10 seconds behind winners No. 2 California.
Up Next
San Diego boats will be back on the water in two weeks' time but on the east coast for the first team this season, racing in another highly-touted regatta, the Schuykill River Invitational on Saturday, April 12 in Philadelphia, Penn.
