RESULTS

PORTLAND, Ore. - Hosting the NRCR at Vancouver Lake, the Lewis & Clark men's and women's crew teams put in two solid performances, with both the womnen's varsity 4+ and men's novice 4+ earning 1st place. The men's varsity 8+ nearly earned a first place finish, but came in close behind the winning team grabbing 2nd place.

The team had some very strong performances and moreover a couple of shining examples of what the program wants to be.

"I was simply bowled over by the quality of our coaching staff, volunteers, and support staff who let us host what has to be one of the smoothest-running regattas I've ever been a part of," said head coach Sam Taylor. "I'm tremendously fortunate to be able to work with each and every one of them."

The day started with a two hour fog delay and then directly ramped up to complete insanity. The women's varsity eight launched and lost their skeg (the fin under the boat) sometime in the process; this makes the boat un-steerable. With less the 20 minutes to go to race time the whole team went into action and had the men's boat fully rigged up and ready to go in six or seven minutes, probably fifteen minutes faster then in any other circumstance. The women swapped shells, jammed up to the line, and made the start.

The circumstances and the unfamiliar boat were enough to throw us off our game; the piece was not the best. It appeared they ever found a rhythm and ended up finishing 4th amongst their conference DIII rivals.

"I was very proud of the tenacity of the eight in sticking to the race and staying aggressive throughout, and also amazed at the fast work the rest of the team did in making sure they got up to the start despite the breakage."

Five of those women jumped out of the eight and straight into a four to head back to the line for the Varsity four heat; the circumstances didn't seem to faze them a bit as they went on to win their heat and qualify for the final. The men's varsity four also had a very solid row to win their heat and progress on.

The men's novice four was the first boat to break things open; they steamrolled their race and won by more then twenty seconds. It was their first opportunity this year to row that boat and a simply tremendous performance by that group of freshman athletes.

Shortly after bad luck struck again. The women's novice four was leading their four-boat heat, with three to qualify for the final, when the 3-seat's handle broke clean off with about 500 meters to go. This is exceptionally rare-- not something they'd thought to prepare them for. They took good command and of the situation and the bow pair went to work putting in an absolutely heroic performance-- with only two athletes rowing (pulling along their two fellow rowers and the coxswain) they nearly managed to hang onto 3rd place, but just missed out qualifying for the final. While they were all heartbroken at the breakage it was a bravado performance and one which speaks very well for future races in this boat.

The women's Varsity four took some inspiration from their novice teammates circumstances and laid down a fantastic performance; they were never far from the lead and in the last 500 meters bumped the rate up twice and went away for the win.

The men's varsity four had a little bit more difficulty with a very strong field but still took a solid 5th in a very competitive final. Those guys had only a few minutes on shore before launching the varsity 8.

The last four races of the day were contested in vastly different weather conditions; a strong crosswind and plenty of chop came up and the conditions were very difficult. The Men's 8 showed their class; they worked their way down the course never far from the lead and finished a strong 2nd to Puget Sound. It appeared they found plenty of redemption after a shaky start to the season at Daffodil Cup.

"Overall we had a bit of bad luck that prevented a couple of breakthroughs, but at the same time the races that managed to get down the course without incident did very, very well. All the signs point to a strong season."