PORT OF LOS ANGELES, March 28: One by one the Trojan Navy picked off UCLA’s crews on Sunday leading to a clean sweep of all rowing events at the annual spring duel with its cross-town rival.

USC won each of the men’s freshman, junior varsity and varsity eight races by open water margins. Each race was a procession for USC, which varsity coxswain Emily Chin described best as “a Sunday boat parade.”

The Trojan Navy’s freshman crew opened the morning with a commanding twenty-second victory over UCLA. “I give them (UCLA) credit,” said frosh team captain William Morris. “They stuck around for almost 300 meters.”

Next up was the Junior Varsity race and the Trojan Crew, made up primarily of freshmen doubling up, inflicted an even greater blow against UCLA with a massive 25-second victory. “Spank! Spank! Spank! That’s what that race was all about,” said USC stroke Toby Jacobson. “We had a lot of fun out there.”

Tensions were high for the last race of the morning, the men’s varsity eight-championship race for the Bob Hillen Cup. “We needed to win to record the sweep,” said varsity stroke Danny Friedman.

According to Friedman, the crew had its best racing starts of the year during the warm-up before the race. “We didn’t do so well in the actual race. I would give our start a B+ but is was still good enough to pick up a quick boat-length lead.”

USC won by a boat-length of open water over the Bruins and quickly returned to the dock to claim the Bob Hillen Cup for the second year in a row.

“Celebrations may have been a little excessive,” laughed varsity bowman Paul Idzikowski after joining his crew in drinking champagne from the oversized silver cup. “We sprayed a dozen bottles of champagne all over ourselves. It is a sweet taste of victory drinking champagne from that cup.

The win marked the eighth consecutive victory for the Trojan Navy varsity crew over UCLA.

RESULTS:

9AM MEN’S FRESHMAN EIGHTS:
Strong outgoing tide led to slightly shortened race
USC 5:38.7
UCLA 5:58.3

10AM MEN’S JV EIGHTS:
USC 5:56.8
UCLA 6:22.5

11AM “BOB HILLEN CUP” MEN’S VARSITY EIGHT:
USC 5:49.1
UCLA 5:54.9

The Women of Troy also swept the Bruins in all races on Sunday. One race was ruled a no contest after USC’s novice women became entangled in fishing line just 100 meters from the finish line.

For full results of the women’s races visit: ROW 2K