NCRC Invitational, Vancouver Lake, Saturday April 6th
Battling strong winds all day, the UO crews posted strong results at Vancouver Lake.
The Men’s Varsity 8+ won handily, beating out Humboldt State, Puget Sound, Lewis and Clark, and Pacific Lutheran. Facing strong headwinds (>10mph) and heavy chop in the first thousand meters, the boat posted a time of 7:16.

Facing similar conditions the Women’s Varsity 8+ battled to 6th place, against some very strong Division III competition.

The Men’s 2nd Varsity 4+ was the last UO boat to race on a full 2000 meters, and they won easily, 13 seconds ahead of the competition. The 2V4 beat out Puget Sound, Humboldt, Lewis & Clark, Seattle Pacific, and Willamette U.

After the Men’s 2V4 the races were shortened to 1000 meters dues to the heavy chop on the first half of the course.

The Men’s Varsity 4+ placed 4th of 7, with a time of 4:11.7.
The Men’s Novice 8+ lost a close race to Puget Sound, by only 3 seconds to take second place.
The Men’s novice 8 was split into 4′s to race in the N4 and 2N4 events, placing 4th and 2nd respectively.

The Oregon Women continued to compete against strong DIII competition, placing 5th in the V4, 4th in the Novice 8, and 6th in the Novice 4.

Covered Bridge Regatta, Lake Dexter, Saturday April 13th
The following weekend the UO team raced on our home course at Dexter lake, facing increasingly strong winds as the afternoon wore on.

The Women’s 8+ raced in the JV event, and placed 7th against very tough competition, which included DI University of Portland and DII National Champion contenders Western Washington and Humboldt State. The Women’s Varsity 4 performed well in their heat, taking 2nd place overall.

The Men’s Varsity 8+ lost a close race to Western Washington to place 2nd, 4 seconds behind the 1st place boat. Varsity 4 B boat won their heat, obliterating the field by nearly 50 seconds. The A boat faced tougher competition, and had to settle for 5th.

The Novice Women’s 8 and 4 both earned third place finishes on the afternoon.

The Men’s Novice 4′s placed 3rd and 5th in their heats, while the N8 placed 4th overall.

WIRA Championships, Lake Natoma, April 27th-28th
The UO teams finished out the meat of their competitive year with a strong showing at the WIRA championships in Sacramento CA.

Leading the UO teams was the Women’s Varsity 4+, who placed fourth in their qualifying heat .3 seconds behind Long Beach State. A third place finish would have put the women into the grand finals, but they had to settle for a dominating performance in the petite final (8:19.8), beating out second place Willamette by 8 seconds.

The Men’s Varsity 8+ faced tough competition in their heat, finishing 4 seconds out of the 3rd place finish necessary to reach the grand finals. In the petite final they finished 2nd, giving 1st-place USC everything they had, losing by .4 seconds. The Mens V8 posted their best time of the year at WIRAs (on calm water) with a 6:24 2k.

The Men’s novice 8 placed 7th in their heat, and faced familiar foe Puget Sound in the 3rd final. The Novice men held a lead for most of the race, but were edged out in the last 500 meters.

The Women’s Novice 8 placed 6th in their qualifying heat, and struggled to a 5th place finish in the petite final after encountering equipment issues partway into the race.

The UO also featured Men’s and Women’s varsity pairs. The men, who had been practicing together for less than a week, finished 4th in the 3rd Final, while the Women nearly made it to the medal stand, placing 4th overall.

The Men’s Varsity 8+ advanced to the Grand Finals of the regatta, where they placed 3rd overall, barely losing second to the Washington State B boat by 1.3 seconds, with a time of 6:18.3. This bests the V8′s best time of last spring by 21 seconds.

The Men’s Novice 8+ finished 4th of 6, with a time of 6:48.8. The UO novices learned a great deal from thier first 2k, losing a second place spot to Western Washington and Portland State in the last 10 strokes. They’ll build on their experience and look to rebound against these crews with rematches at NCRCs and Covered Bridge.

The Women’s V8 placed 3rd of 4 in the petite final, with a time of 7:30.8. They faced strong competition as the only club women’s team at the regatta, which featured a defending Division II National Champions Humboldt State and contender Western Washington.

The Women’s Novice 8+ tied for 1st in the 2nd Varsity 8 petite final (the novice and 2V8 heats were merged for finals), in a tight race against the Humboldt State B boat. The women had a time of 7:35.1, with similar stiff competition as the varsity women.

All times can be accessed at the Row2k Results page (http://www.row2k.com/results/index.cfm).

The UO rowers will be back in action this week at the NCRC Invitational at Vancouver Lake.

For those interested, here’s the tentative winter term practice schedule:
M-Th at Mac Court on campus, when we will run, erg, and do lots of circuits
F & Sa at Lake Dexter, getting some valuable water time in the cold

We’ll have a fall racing season recap up in a few days, sorry for the delay!

1) We will be hosting an event during “Duck N2 the Rec” at the UO Student Rec Center from 3-5pm on 9/20

2) We will have a table at the Club Sports Open House in the EMU on 9/27 from 6-730pm

3) We will have two informational meetings for prospective rowers, on 9/28 and 10/2 from 6-8pm in Mackenzie 214
*These informational meetings will be covering the same material. It is only necessary to attend 1, but if you really liked the first meeting you can come back for the second*

Please come and talk to us on these dates! If you have any questions or concerns that you would like an answer for before then, feel free to contact team President Delaney Butler at 541-280-1982 or ddsbutler@gmail.com

Jen St. Onge- 3rd Team Women’s All- American
Ian Davis- 1st Team West Region All-American
Delaney Butler- 1st Team Academic All-American
Max Londberg- 2nd Team Academic All-American
Trevor Mathwick- 2nd Team Academic All-American

Way to go Ducks!

Check out this awesome documentary that chronicles the UO Crew Team’s preparations for the 2012 Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships. For all of those who have wondered what the life of a crewbie is like, watch this film for insight!

On its home course at the Covered Bridge Regatta (4/14), Oregon placed third in both the men’s varsity and novice eights. Oregon also entered two varsity fours on the men’s side, finishing second and third. For the women, the JV and novice eights both finished fourth.

Complete results of the Covered Bridge Regatta

At the WIRA Championship in Sacramento (4/28 – 4/29), Oregon peaked at the right time. After a slow start to the season, the men’s varsity eight raced in the Grand Finals, finishing in 6:39, its fastest mark of the year. The novice eight also earned a season PR with 6:43.4.

On the women’s side, the pair made an impressive showing. WIRA was the duo’s first appearance, but they performed as if they had been rowing together all season. After qualifying for the Grand Finals, they finished with a time of 8:53.7. The novice eight also performed well. Qualifying for the Petite Final, the women shaved over 13 seconds off their mark from their earlier preliminary race.

Complete WIRA Championship Results

Oregon rowers did not have much time to reflect on the WIRA Championship, as training began for ACRA just two days later. With only one week to go before the national club championship, Oregon has intensified its training regimen. The team will be entering four boats. A novice four will be representing the women. A novice eight, varsity four and lightweight four will round out the men’s team. Although crews from across the nation will be competing in this regatta, Oregon rowers are confident they will reach their potential against worthy opponents. In 2011 they did just that, coming away with a silver and bronze medal in the men’s varsity single and women’s varsity four, respectively.

On Wednesday, March 7, the rowing team will hold a bake sale outside the Duck Store. Team members will be selling an assortment of baked goods such as brownies, cookies, peanut bars and much more. Some of the goods will be decorated with a rowing theme.

The team will be fundraising from 8 am – 7 pm. Any donation will help with spring racing (including race entry and travel fees) just around the corner. Please come support the rowing team, and as a bonus, enjoy a delicious baked treat!

The team has just finished the first half of winter training at Mac Court. Beginning at 5:45 am, the two-hour practices are both intensive and rewarding. On any given day, the team may row upward of 5000 meters on the erg machines, run miles of laps up and down the stairs inside the arena, AND endure circuit training that targets the entire body.

On other days, we may simply do some lunges–a mile of them.

Be sure to bookmark our page so you can follow us as we prepare for the spring racing season!