By Jessica Bach
Daily Bruin Contributor
The women’s rowing team fell to USC 5-2 on Saturday when they traveled to Wilmington, Calif., to compete against their crosstown rivals. The Bruins also enlarged their deficit to the Trojans in the Lexus Gauntlet Challenge 52.5-35.
Even before this weekend, the Bruins knew it would be an uphill battle for them against the powerhouse USC team. With this being the first year for the UCLA rowers competing at varsity level, going against a team with a long-standing strong program and many scholarship rowers is a tough challenge. Acknowledging this, the team focused less on winning and more on the personal goals.
“We did what we expected,” UCLA head coach Amy Fuller said. “We aimed to come in 30-40 secs behind USC, and that’s what we did.”
The Varsity 8 did hold with their expectations, coming in at 7:11.9, behind USC’s 6:36.0 that gave them three of their total points.
The Bruins scored one of their two points when the Varsity 4 boat beat USC with a time of 8:34.8 to the Trojans’ 8:46.9.
This meet was the first competition for the quintet composed of Jennifer Mitamura, Kathy Gallagher, Lauren Hamann, Alana Rattray and coxswain Valerie Rodriguez.
“I knew that if we put up a decent lineup together we might be able to race with them,” Fuller said in a press release. “I was really pleased to see that we (Varsity 4) were able to do that. They had a good row, and they haven’t practiced very much together at all, so for their first time rowing the four, I was pretty pleased with their performance.”
UCLA also scored with the Novice 8 boat coming in at 7:20.4, in front of the USC ‘A’ at 7:27.0 and USC ‘B’ at 8:02.6.
“I’m happy with the Novice 8’s performance,” Fuller said. “I think they’re coming along. We still need to work on our stroke rate, cadence and attack.”
The results of the meet advanced USC’s position in the Lexus Gauntlet Challenge, which they now lead by seven and a half points over the Bruins.
The challenge is a season-long competition between the two schools, in which points are awarded for each head-to-head contest.
“We will not beat USC,” Fuller said. “Where they are in their program compared to where we are, it is just not going to happen.
“But we are trying to improve every time we are on the water, whether that is competition or practice. Its just not going to happen overnight.”
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Next up for the rowing team will be the San Diego Crew Classic. Competition will take place all day, starting on April 6 and continuing on April 7.