The University Crew Club fielded three boats at the Covered Bridge Regatta on Saturday at Dexter Lake in Lowell. All three finished in the top four of their events, including a second-place finish by the men’s varsity four.
The start of Oregon’s varsity races was pushed back by race officials fearing bad weather, but the threat of rain didn’t dampen the quality of the rowing.
“There were more teams than in years past,” Oregon coxswain Laura Breedlove said. “We had some great competition.”
The competing teams came from across the Northwest. This year’s edition of the Regatta was large, featuring 24 racing organizations entered in 33 events. Squads in the collegiate division included Evergreen College, Seattle Pacific University and Willamette University. All raced the standard spring sprint course of 2,000 meters.
The men’s novice four was the first to race for the Ducks, and despite seeing a rower slip off his seat in the boat during the home stretch, Oregon’s boat finished in third place. The women’s varsity four – Jen Fuller, Annie Blomberg, Rebekah Andrews and Hillary Martin – directed by Breedlove, finished their race in fourth place with a time of 8 minutes, 34.61 seconds.
Oregon’s third entry in the competition was the men’s varsity four. Walker Julliard served as coxswain, while Kennett Peterson, Adam Fagan, Will Ganser and Quincy Sorrough-Atkinson powered the boat. Covering the course in 7:21.79, the Ducks finished in second place behind a team from Seattle Pacific.
“Everybody had a good row,” Breedlove said. “It’s nice to have this race to see where we are.”
Despite the encouraging results at the finish line, Breedlove maintains that her club still has some areas to improve in.
“We’re not as powerful as some other teams,” she said. “We practice every day, but we need to work more on endurance and efficiency.”
Membership in the Crew Club has declined going into the busy spring season despite starting the year with a larger roster.
“It’s kind of weird,” Breedlove said. “We had a fair number of people returning from last year.”
The rowers that still remain will travel to Vancouver, Wash., in two weeks for an event that Oregon helped found last year. As its name suggests, the Northwest Club Championship is for club squads only and is designed to give smaller squads in the region a chance to compete against themselves.
The Ducks will still travel to the Pacific-10 Conference Championships later in the season, going up against intercollegiate competition. Oregon will also take in large regattas in California at the end of this month and into May.
“We want to represent Oregon,” Breedlove said.