UC Irvine Varsity Bring Back The Parker Cup
March 1, 2009
Marina del Rey, Calif- After a three-year absence the UC Irvine Varsity 8 was able to reclaim the Parker Cup on Saturday February 28th.
Irvine won with a 2.97 second victory over Loyola Marymount and 30.13 seconds over San Diego State. The Anteaters jumped out to a deck lead right from the start and gradually extended the lead over LMU to 2 seats of open water. Over the last 300m the Lions where able to close the gap a bit, finishing just bow to stern down on the Anteaters. The Aztecs fell off the pace right from the start and were never in contention.
The 2nd Varsity 8 was split into two 4's to race the LMU Varsity 4. The LMU V4 consisted of 3 from the V8 and 1 spare while the UCI V4's consisted of three 2V in each boat and 1 athlete in each boat came from the V8 to replace two recently injured teammates. The "B" 4 raced a gutsy race from start to finish with relentless attacks but eventually fell short by 3.82 seconds to the LMU boat. The Irvine "A" 4 rowed a very controlled race but never really attacked and finished third 6.24 seconds behind the winner.
In the race of the day the Irvine Novice 8 snatched a last second victory from LMU, winning by .45 of a second. LMU jumped out to a 2 seat lead during the start sequence and lengthened that lead to about 4 seats during the next 4-500m. Through the middle of the race UCI was able to pull even and might have even pulled ahead slightly before the Lyons moved back out to a slight lead. The 2 crews battled for inches until over the last 300 meters the Anteaters where able to creep ahead for the victory.
Varsity 8
UCI 6:10.1
LMU 6:12.8
SDSU 6:40.14
2nd Varsity 8
LMU 7:01.5
UCI "B" 7:04.87
UCI "A" 7:07.47
Novice 8
UCI 6:29.4
LMU 6:29.85
