May 14, 2005
Rancho Cordova, CA
The Stanford Lightweight Rowing team scored two first-place finishes in the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships today at Lake Natoma. In their last race of the regular season the Card were entered in the Novice-8 and Varsity-8 events.
The Novice-8 race paired the Card lights against their cross-town rivals, Cal-Berkeley. The boats were even off the start and through the 300m mark when Stanford began to take some seats. Stanford opened up the gap through the middle of the race and finished with a time of 7:24.6 to Cal's 7:39.4. The Novice-8 line-up is coxswain Alex Esparza, stroke Kelly Marshall, Lindsey Merrihew, and Kelly Wood (bow).
"This was a good day to have a great race," said Stanford novice coach Nicole Younts, "and I'm really happy for them. Cal beat us in our first race of the season so we knew we would have to go out hard and have a great performance today."
In the Varsity-8 event, No. 4 Stanford led from start to finish, winning in a time of 7:02.9. No. 6 San Diego State finished second in 7:14.7, followed by No. 10 Loyola Marymount (7:19.8), and No. 14 Cal (7:24.9). This is the fourth year in a row that Stanford has won the event. The Varsity-8 line-up is coxswain Maia Goodman, stroke Meredith Coleman, Jennie Morawetz, Cady Kintner, Kate Vieh, Kristina Peterson, Olivia Prevost, Kate Hayes, and Amina Richardson (bow).
"Today was a great day to be a Stanford lightweight," said Younts. "It's always a good feeling when the whole team brings home gold."
The Varsity-8 will next race at the IRA national championships in Camden, NJ on June 3-4.