No. 20 Women's Rowing Take 6th at Pac-10s - Oregon State University Athletics

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. -- In the morning heat sessions all four boats (V8+, 2V8+, V4+, N8+) for the No. 20 ranked Oregon State women’s rowing team qualified for their respective grand finals. With the conclusion of the Pac-10 Championships OSU finished in sixth place at Lake Natoma, just one point away from the top five.

"I felt we had a very solid day of racing," said head coach Emily Ford. "It was good racing across the board and it’s always good to put some Pac-10 opponents behind us."

In the final race of the day, the Varsity 8+ grand final featured all six boats with rankings in the national top 20 according to the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association/USRowing poll. USC went into the weekend as the nations top V8+ crew followed by California at No. 8, UCLA at No. 10, Washington at No. 16, Stanford at No. 18 and Oregon State at No. 20.

USC got out to an early lead that the Women of Troy would not relinquish through the duration of the race. Stanford, Cal and UCLA came in at two, three and four respectively. The three jockeyed and battled for the last two medals all the way down the 2,000 meter course. Meanwhile, Oregon State outdueled Washington for fifth place to round out the top six.

“They came back from a jittery race in the morning to put together a solid effort in the afternoon,” said Ford. “The V8+ raced nicely through the entire race for a solid effort.”

It was a fourth place finish for the Varsity 4+ narrowly missing a medal. The V4+ had fallen to fifth place through 1,500m of racing, but rallied in the final 500 to salvage fourth place ahead of Stanford and Washington State and nearly caught USC in third place for the medal. Another strong performance by Washington got them the win. Gonzaga came in second.

Through the first 500 meters of the Novice 8+ race OSU got out to a solid second place start behind Gonzaga, but the Beavers were unable to hold off strong efforts from Washington, Stanford, UCLA and Washington State after a boat stopping crab in the final 500m for a fifth place finish.

“The N8+ had a heartbreaking day. They were really fighting for second place with around 250m to go and caught a crab," said Ford. "They did a great job and had great boat speed. It was unfortunate, but that is just the way races go sometimes.”

A fifth place finish was also the case for the 2V8+ as the Beavs finished ahead of Washington State. Cal won the race while maintaining the lead for the entire race. Following the Bears was Washington, USC and UCLA respectively.

“It was another solid race was the 2V8+. Everyone felt pretty good about the race, especially the second half as they had a very solid finish.”

Leading the Beavers in the morning session was the N8+ winning their heat in dramatic comeback fashion. Trailing UCLA by nearly three seconds at the halfway point, but the Beavers persevered and pinned their ears back in the final 750m to pull out a 1.5 second victory over UCLA.

In the V4+ heat OSU came in at second place behind Washington by less than a second. Both the V8+ and the 2V8+ qualified for the grand finals with third place finishes. The V8+ finished behind first place Stanford and second place California while the 2V8+ finished behind UCLA and Washington respectively.

STANDINGS/ RESULTS

1. USC	71
2. California	61
3. Washington	58
4. UCLA	56
5. Stanford	51*
6. Oregon State	51*
7. Washington State	40

*Stanford claims fifth place with a better finish in the Varsity 8+

HEAT RACES

Varsity 4+
1	Washington	07:27.7
2	Oregon State	07:28.1
3	USC	07:29.1
4	UCLA	07:34.6

Novice 8+
1	Oregon State	06:58.3
2	UCLA	06:59.7
3	USC	07:06.9
4	California	07:12.4
5	Sacramento State	07:30.8
6	Sonoma State	08:01.7

Second Varsity 8+
1	Washington	06:49.8
2	UCLA	06:51.5
3	Oregon State	06:52.1
4	UC Davis	06:56.9
5	Gonzaga	06:58.5
6	St. Mary's College	07:36.5

Varsity 8+
1	Stanford	06:35.6
2	California	06:36.2
3	Oregon State	06:39.2
4	Gonzaga	06:40.4
5	Sacramento State	06:55.9
6	San Diego State	07:17.2

GRAND FINALS

Varsity 4+
1	Washington	07:38.0
2	Gonzaga	07:40.4
3	USC	07:42.7
4	Oregon State	07:43.1
5	Stanford	07:43.9
6	Washington State	07:49.5

Novice 8+
1	Gonzaga	07:06.4
2	Washington	07:11.4
3	UCLA	07:13.7
4	Washington State	07:24.6
5	Oregon State	07:27.3
6	USC	07:33.6

Second Varsity 8+
1	California	06:53.0
2	Washington	06:56.7
3	USC	06:59.0
4	UCLA	07:04.4
5	Oregon State	07:05.7
6	Washington State	07:11.2

Varsity 8+
1	USC	06:40.1
2	Stanford	06:42.6
3	California	06:44.6
4	UCLA	06:48.6
5	Oregon State	06:50.5
6	Washington	06:55.0

LINEUPS

Varsity 8+

cox: Claire Hanway

8: Caroline Leibinger

7: Britnie Jones

6: Kaylie Towne

5: Ame Hicks

4: Ami Rothberg

3: Jen Hester

2: Jane Ivey

1: Katie Sikstrom

Second Varsity 8+

cox: Meagan Sanborn

8: Nikki Mullens

7: Jenny Kossowsky

6: Melissa Penwell

5: Nicole Rasor

4: Rebecca Franceschi

3: Lisa Meredith

2: Erica O'Connell

1: Neta Fischer

Varity 4+

Cox: Sarah Joos

4: Holly Simmons

3: Katie Humm

2: Meghan Mandell

1: Alina Haberstroh

Novice 8+

Cox: Celia Magistrale

8: Sarah Jarrett

7: Diane Lindsley

6: Brittany McMenamin

5: Laura Brookins

4: Trish Stackpole

3: Kylie Robertson

2: Julia Patton

1: Michelle Wilson