Trojans row away for victory over UCLA in Port of Los Angeles

April 29, 2006 – Port of Los Angeles, CA: The Trojan Navy raced to victory over UCLA in front of a USC Boathouse packed with screaming fans and won back the Robert Hillen Cup on Saturday morning.
The Robert Hillen Cup, awarded each spring to the faster varsity crew of the two cross-town rivals, has now been won by USC in three of the four years since it was commissioned in 2003.

The cup is named in honor of the memory of the long-time USC rowing coach, Bob Hillen, who also coxed and coached briefly for UCLA in the mid 1940s.
Coach Bob Hillen made the move from Westwood to Troy in 1948 he quickly built up a Trojan program that began a streak of 23 straight victories over the Bruins. Coach Hillen passed away in 2003. His wife, Charleene, passed away earlier this year and their ashes were recently scattered in the waters in front of the USC Boathouse, where he coached for half a century.
“It felt terrific to win the Hillen Cup back,” said Sterling Brisbin, who was also a member of the winning 2004 USC Crew. “We executed well. (Coxswain) Emily Chin called us to go as we approached the boathouse (1000m mark) and we made a good move away on UCLA. Any doubt disappeared at that point.”

The Crew raced in their shell called “AshleySierra” in honor of the two grand daughters of crew alumnus Andrew Westhem ’55, who sadly passed away earlier this year in La Jolla, California.

The winning USC Crew of 2006 are bowman Sterling Brisbin, Adam Fish, Taylor Coats, Alan Thesenvitz, Kevin Lorell, Jeff Clark, Lee McAuliffe, stroke Bryan Barrett and coxswain Emily Chin.



Chin, Lorell and Brisbin were also members of the winning 2004 USC Crew and teamed up with Bryan Barrett and Alan Thesenvitz to win the Varsity Fours race later in the morning. The crew raced in the shell Cymodocea, named after a beautiful ancient Greek sea nymph.



FULL RESULTS:

Robert Hillen Cup for Varsity Eights
USC 5 minutes 57.95 seconds
UCLA 6:03:83

Varsity Fours:
USC 6:28.75
UCLA 6:37.48

Freshman Eights:
UCLA 6:10
USC ‘A’ 6:14
USC ‘B’ 6:35

Freshman Fours
UCLA 6:52.99
USC 7:06.62

Next up for USC is the PAC-10 Championships to be held at Lake Natoma, just outside of Sacramento. The Trojans will compete in the Varsity Eight, Novice Eight and Novice Fours events.