All three Trojan Crews make Grand Finals at PAC-10s

May 13-14, 2006 – Rancho Cordova, CA: The USC men qualified all three crews to the Grand Finals at the PAC-10/Pacific Coast Rowing Championships on Lake Natoma, just outside of Sacramento this weekend, and finished fifth overall in the team standings.



PAC-10 Team Standings
1. CAL 72
2. WASH 59
3. OSU 46
4. STAN 43
5. USC 26
6. WSU 18
7. UCLA 14
8. ORE 5

The Trojan Navy’s flagship varsity eight qualified for the grand final on Sunday morning by finishing among the top three in its heat with UC Berkeley and Oregon State. All three crews advanced to the PAC-10 final and were joined by Stanford, Washington, and Loyola Marymount University.

In the PAC-10 final Stanford blasted off the start leading the California Golden Bears after 500 meters of racing. The Trojan Varsity crew of cox Emily Chin, stroke Bryan Barrett, Lee McAuliffe, Jeff Clark, Kevin Lorell, Alan Thesenvitz, Taylor Coats, Adam Fish, and bowman Sterling Brisbin had a disappointing start and trailed the field early.

California soon turned on the power and passed Stanford to win. USC finished sixth, behind Washington, Oregon State and LMU. “We tried to row a longer rowing stroke this weekend and instead it just got slower and heavier,” said senior Kevin Lorell.

PAC-10 Final for Varsity Eights:
1. California 5 minutes 39.4 seconds
2. Stanford 5:42.7
3. Washington 5:47.2
4. Oregon State 5:54.4
5. LMU 6:04.6
6. USC 6:07.3

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RACE ONLINE.

The surprise of the weekend for the Trojans was the success of its freshman team.



“Coach Kininmonth told us during the week we had a chance to become the most successful USC freshman eight ever at PAC-10s just by finishing fourth,” said freshman captain Luke Monroe. “We were certainly motivated by that.”

“But it was a comedy of errors getting to the start line,” recounted stroke Chad Riddersen. “We spent forever on the shore trying to figure out whose oars were whose and once we finally shoved off we broke a rigger and just jury rigged it with zip-ties to hold it on. We already had foot stretchers held together with zip-ties. It was pretty funny and I think we were relaxed by that and as a crew decided to just go for it.”

The USC freshmen crew of cox Charlotte West, stroke Chad Riddersen, Evan McKittrick, Jordan Mirrer, Les Starck, Nicholas Babikian, Luke Monroe, Lee Carter, and bowman Scott Vlastnik were in fourth place after 500m and held onto that position for the entire race. “We expended everything we had to go into the history books and make coach proud of us. It was a very satisfying conclusion to our season,” said freshman Les Starck.

PAC-10 Final for Freshman Eights:
1. California 5:43.0
2. Washington 5:43.2
3. Oregon State 6:07
4. USC 6:10.5
5. UCLA 6:21.6
6. Sonoma State 6:23.4
7. Washington State 6:38.1

On Saturday, USC entered the Freshman Four event of the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships. The Trojan Crew of cox Charlotte West, stroke Kevin Stanek, Alex Boone, Jens Back, and bowman Charles Bushby finished an impressive second place in the preliminary heats and qualified for the Grand Final that afternoon, where the crew finished fifth overall.

PCRC Final for Freshman Fours:
1. California 6:42.5
2. Sac State 7:00.8
3. Sonoma St 7:03.9
4. Stanford 7:11.7
5. USC 7:23.2
6. Washington St 7:39.1

Next up for the Trojan Navy is the IRA National Championship Regatta to be held in Camden, NJ from June 1-3. USC has entered the varsity coxed fours and pairs events but must wait one week before knowing if it meets qualifying criteria.