L&C Crew Has Strong Showing At The Covered Bridge Regatta

RESULTS

DEXTER, Ore. - Lewis & Clark Crew took advantage of some excellent conditions at Dexter Lake to use the Covered Bridge Regatta as a final tune-up for next week's Conference Championships.

The day started with three solid wins as the Women's Pair, the Men's Pair, and the Men's Novice Four all took first in their events. "It was pretty great to see us take the first three races of the day," said Head Coach Sam Taylor, "All three boats looked exactly like what we want: confident, relaxed, and controlling the race from the front." The Pioneers also boated a B women's pair that finished 5th.

The Men's team doubled up and rowed both a JV4 and Varsity 4 lineup in the Men's Varsity Four race. The first boat lineup engaged in a stroke-for-stroke battle with Seattle Pacific University right to the line and were just pipped to take 2nd by only .9 seconds. The JV4 were strong while racing up and took 5th.

The women's Novice 4 came next; fighting for redemption after breaking a handle the prior weekend they also got into a dogfight with Humboldt University but coming up short in the sprint to finish 3rd.

The women's JV4 rowed up into the Varsity 4 event and also finished a solid 3rd. "We wanted to challenge the JV4 lineup, said coach Taylor, "And I think their race did that. There was a lot of learning in what it takes to stay aggressive while you're racing against faster competition."

The women's Varsity 8 faced up to a fast field and came up short. An aggressive battle between Willamette, Seattle Pacific, and Pacific Lutheran left the Pioneers behind. "We got left behind in the first 500 and I think it took us a little to long to find our rhythm. We've got some work to do this week to try to find the speed to stay in contact, and the confidence to come from behind if needed."

The Men's Varsity 8, with no other college teams entered in that event, took to the water for an exhibition row against some local Masters clubs at the one thousand meter distance. Charging off the line, they powered away to a 15-plus second lead by the finish. "The men's 8 had a great practice for the first thousand of conference," said coach Taylor, "And our thanks go to the regatta for allowing them to jump into that race. They were able to put themselves into the scenario of being next to Puget Sound and Western and work on what it's going to take to stay up with those crews next weekend."

Coach Taylor summed it up; "We got very fortunate to have excellent racing conditions and good weather. It was a good learning day, and I think we're going forward to the Conference Championships with a much better idea of what we're going to need to do in order to be competitive. The team was fantastic today in supporting each other and
rising to several challenges we put them up to."