Men’s Crew racing fixture includes regatta in Washington D.C.

Los Angeles, CA – March 25, 2006: The Trojan Navy will open its spring season against collegiate competition from across the nation on Mission Bay at the San Diego Crew Classic on Saturday, April 1st.



The Trojan Navy’s flagship crew will make its season debut in the preliminary heats of the California Cup event for varsity eights in San Diego at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. USC will race against UC San Diego, Gonzaga, Rollins College, Santa Clara University and San Diego State University. The first two crews in the heats will advance to the grand final on Sunday morning at 11:10 a.m.

USC will be represented by coxswain Emily Chin, stroke Bryan Barrett, Lee McAuliffe, Jeff Clark, Kevin Lorell, Allan Thesenvitz, Taylor Coats, Adam Fish and bowman Sterling Brisbin. The Trojans have qualified for the final of the California Cup in two of the past three years.

According to Trojan captain Bryan Barrett the varsity crew is the most experienced crew he has been a part of and for the first time in a decade the Trojan varsity eight will not include novice rowers.

“We enjoyed a lot of good rowing over spring break in Los Gatos and we definitely have some speed this year,” said Barrett. “Coach Richards has been fine tuning things this week and we are ready to race.”

The USC Novice squad will also be racing in San Diego. Race officials accepted a record 23 entries for the Novice 8 event, which begin with preliminary heats at 9:00 a.m.

Four heats are scheduled for the novice event. Winners of each heat advance to the grand final along with the next two fastest times. The rest are then seeded into 2nd, 3rd and 4th level finals.



USC will be represented by two eight-man crews.

The USC ‘A’ crew of coxswain Jessica Schreibstein, stroke Scott Vlastnik, Ahmed Darwish, Jens Back, Lauren Lewis, Lee Carter, Charles Bushby and Chad Riddersen faces strong competition from UC Davis, California Berkeley, UCLA, Coast and Chapman College.

The USC ‘B’ crew will be comprised of coxswain Charlotte West, stroke Evan McKittrick, Michael Reynaud, Les Starck, Nicholas Babikian, Luke Monroe, Jordan Mirrer, Sven Jansson and bowman Kevin Lorell. The crew will race Colorado, Cal Berkeley ‘B’, Univ. of San Diego, Long Beach State and Loyola Marymount University.

The Trojan Navy’s final entry for the weekend will be in the Men’s Open 8, which races at 1:40 p.m. on Saturday. Several of the Trojan novice squad will double up with Parth Shah, Joe Flynn, Derrek Sallay and sophomore Johnathon Brown for this race.

Full race schedule details and directions to the regatta can be found on the official website: www.crewclassic.com.

Adding to the weekend festivities is a Crew get together for parents and alums at the home of crew parents Sean and Denise Barrett on Saturday night and the Trojan BBQ on Sunday at the course. Including the Women of Troy and various San Diego alumni clubs, up to 300 members of the Trojan Family are anticipated to be at the BBQ.



For Trojan Family wishing to drop by the Barrett’s on Saturday evening, please email crewparents@usctrojans.com for details.

Following the San Diego Crew Classic the Trojan Navy travels to Washington DC to race at the George Washington Crew Classic on April 8.