May 16, 2004

Rancho Cordova, CA: The Trojan Navy won its first PAC-10 championship medal in two decades on Sunday when it finished in third place in the varsity fours event on Lake Natoma. The Trojan’s previous medal was won in 1988 when USC earned silver in the men’s freshman eight event.

Washington won the PAC-10 Rowing Championship points trophy with wins in the varsity eight, junior varsity eight and varsity four events.

Click Here for FULL RESULTS

USC entered three men’s events at the PAC-10 Rowing Championships. In addition to the bronze-medal winning four, USC finished sixth in the grand final of the Freshman/Novice Eight event and fifth in the petite final of the Varsity Eight event.

Experiencing technical difficulties, the Trojans were slow off the start in the varsity four grand final and then had to sprint past Sacramento State in the last 400 meters of the 2000m final to win the bronze. Washington won easily with California in second place.

“My cox-box wasn’t working for the first half of the race,” said varsity coxswain Emily Chin. “Our stroke rate was too low and I couldn’t communicate race strategy with the crew.”

“It was our first race together and we really just tried to figure things out as the race progressed,” said varsity stroke Jamie Brisbin. “When the cox-box came back on and we realized we were only rating 31 strokes per minute we just went for it. The boat really started to fly.”

The Trojans will be spending more time in the four-man shell over the next several months. The crew will race at England’s Henley Royal Regatta in July and also expect to receive an invitation to race in the coxless fours event at the IRA National Championships in Cherry Hill, NJ next month.

Trojan coach Gene Kininmonth was pleased with the performance of his crew. “For their first time out they did a nice job. There is still a lot of speed to be found and I think this crew will have an excellent shot at winning IRAs next month.

The Trojan Navy’s freshmen are also hoping to receive an invitation to IRAs in the four and will have their fingers crossed until Stewards announce the invitations later this month. “Everything is booked…the flights, the vans, the motels…it would be extremely disappointing if we were not able to race,” said freshman coach Brett Winfield.

USC won silver in the Freshman fours event at IRAs in 2003.