Saturday the 24th marked the first race of our spring season; Parker cup. Parker cup is a long-standing race between San Diego State, UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount University. The three programs have been diligent in preserving this race and have adapted over the years to make sure all programs are able to compete in any and every capacity they can. Our relationship with these programs, especially Irvine is the reason this is such an enjoyable and useful event for our team. We always know the competition will be fierce and we will get faster from being pushed.
This year, the cup event was the Varsity 4, again to make sure all programs could compete at the highest level. The Parker cup will stay in Irvine this year as their V4 was the dominant crew but we are very happy with the level of speed our boat was able to produce, our 4 came in second in the three-boat event. The varsity 8 also had a good race, not a perfect one by any means but good in that we have identified our areas of weakness and most importantly, executed our most practiced racing components. The light 4 unfortunately had breakage early in the race and was forced to complete the race with the better part of a man down. They still finished the race with respect for their competitors’ speed as well as surprise in how well the were able to race with a lame seat. The Novice 8 was the first even of the day as well as the Novice first spring race ever. First start, first side by side, first sprint. We were excited to see how the young crew would handle the pressure and although we did not see the same racing that we have seen at practice, we believe having this first race under their belts will shake some of those newbie nerves for next time.
Our JV 8 was by far the most exciting race of the day, with a fight all the way down the 2,000m course and the lead being handed back and forth between the two crews. Unfortunately, the finish line came up during one of the moments that Irvine had the lead and they were able to take it with 2 seconds.
Next weekend we are headed to LA Harbor for our annual Gruenberg Cup regatta between USC and Long Beach. We will be launching out of the USC boathouse and hope to see the best people in the world; our fans!
Official Parker Cup times:
N8
UCI (A)-6:37
UCI (B)-6:49
LMU-6:52
SDSU-6:56
UCI (C)-7:25
Light V4
UCI-7:08
SDSU-8:24
V4
UCI-6:45
SDSU-7:07
LMU-7:18
N4
UCI (A)-7:21
UCI (B)-7:42
SDSU (A)-7:46
SDSU (B)-7:59
LMU-8:04
JV8
UCI-6:46
SDSU-6:48
V8
UCI-6:27
SDSU-6:40
Go Aztecs!