MARINA DEL REY, April 17: The 2nd Annual USC Invitational Regatta was always going to be a juggling act for the Trojan Navy and in the end Coach Gene Kininmonth’s bag of tricks came up empty as the Santa Clara Broncos’ varsity crew pulled off a dramatic victory over USC to win the George Gordon Cup.

Four universities participated in the boat races held on Ballona Creek between Culver Bridge and Speedway Bridge on Saturday. UC Santa Barbara was defeated by Santa Clara in the first round and raced LMU in the petite final.

USC, the cup-holder and even-money favorite in the varsity eights event after easily accounting for Loyola Marymount in the heats, failed to match Santa Clara’s opening speed in the 2000m final. In spite of a late blitz by the Trojans in the closing stages of the race the Broncos won the two-boat final by just under quarter of a length with a time of 6 minutes 31.2 seconds.

“Their opening speed surprised us,” said USC coxswain Emily Chin. “We have been accustomed to picking up quick leads off the start but Santa Clara took at least half a length on us in the first twenty strokes.”

Santa Clara then received a warning for moving too close to USC in the middle stages of the race.

“The wind was wild out there and both crews were being edged dangerously toward the shore,” said Coach Kininmonth, who was officiating the race from a chase boat. “At no time did Santa Clara infringe on USC but I did direct their coxswain to steer to port to avoid a potential collision and he did so immediately.”

With team-captain Blair Jones absent from Saturday’s races, picking the varsity crew line-up required some juggling of oarsmen between the freshman and JV crews. Utility oarsman Tommy Simoneau was switched from port to starboard to rebalance the power throughout the varsity boat and in a shock move, freshman James Brisbin was promoted to the stroke seat of the crew.

The stroke of an eight has the crucial role of setting up the crew’s rhythm and rating of strokes per minute. Many coaches believe the best oarsman in the crew should fulfill this function.

Brisbin refused to be drawn into comment on the changes prior to the race. “The important thing is that everyone in this crew is so proud to be rowing for USC. Everyone is so keyed up,” he said.

The USC Freshman Crew opened the regatta in convincing fashion with a boat-length win over Santa Clara with UCSB trailing several lengths further back. The Trojan Navy’s JV Crew then continued the success by enjoying an easy victory over UC Santa Barbara in its event.

USC Invitational Regatta Results:

Freshman Eights:
1. USC 6:34.1
2. Santa Clara 6:39.0
3. UCSB 6:58.9

JV Eights:
1. USC 6:56.4
2. UCSB 7:08.2

Varsity Eights for the George Gordon Cup:
Petite Final
1. UCSB 6:55.6
2. LMU 7:10.4

Grand Final
1. Santa Clara 6:31.6
2. USC 6:32.3

Next up for the Trojan Navy is the Newport Regatta to be held in Newport Harbor on Sunday April 25.