By Leslie HackettStaff Writer
It was a weekend for the young and the young at heart.
The 29th Annual San Diego Crew Classic was the largest ever thisyear, with crowds nearing 20,000 watching more than 90 races fromCrown Point Park last weekend.
San Diego State women’s crew team took to the water early Saturdaymorning for the first qualifying race of the Cal Cup at 7:30 a.m.
From the beginning Duke provided stiff competition. The BlueDevils crossed the finish line first at a time of 6:51.80 and movedon to become the eventual winner of the Cal Cup grand final onSunday.
The Aztecs closed in on third-place University of San Diego in thelast 500 meters of the race, but not being able to pass, finishedfourth at 7:12.52.
The top two teams in each of the three heats for the Cal Cuppreliminaries moved on to compete in the finals on Sunday.
The Aztecs, with their fourth-place finish, moved on to the petitefinal in the Cal Cup.
While Sunday didn’t bring more luck, the team felt it racedbetter.
“We went out there and raced our race instead of just going outthere to row,” senior Leila Curtis said.
With barely a mention of a breeze the Aztecs pulled to a fifthplace finish in the petite final, No. 11 overall, again at the heelsof USD. The competition was intense and the final horn for SDSU blewexactly one second after the winner of the race, CSU Sacramento,crossed the victory stripe.
“We gave it our all, but we just needed to push a little harder,”sophomore Jamie Williams said. “When we face these teams again weneed to be ready.”
Many members of the varsity squad agreed this week will be a timeto work on a quicker start in the first 500 meters of the race.
“Both days we were beaten in the first 500 and had to play catchup,” head coach Scott Steckel said. “We did a really good job atmaking up time, but we can’t give away something early on and thenexpect to win.”
The second race of the day for the Aztec squads was the women’sjunior varsity race.
Finishing 11 seconds behind fourth place Minnesota meant the JVteam did not qualify to race on Sunday.
The SDSU novice boat came the closest to grabbing a seat in thegrand final race.
Oregon State dominated the novice heat B race and took an evenlarger lead when second-place Washington lost its third-seat rower toan equipment malfunction in the final 450-meter sprint to the finishline.
This problem presented a chance for the SDSU novice boat to moveinto second position. Although more than four seconds were made up,the team couldn’t pass UW and finished with a time of 7:14.68.
Sunday, the novice boat raced to a third-place finish in thepetite final with a time of 7:12.97 behind Stanford and Texas.
SDSU wrapped up competition on Saturday with the novice B boatcompeting in the women’s open race, where it placed fourth in itsheat with a time of 7:27.83.
It finished third on Sunday with a time of 7:35.93.
This weekend, the Aztecs will compete in the San Diego CityChampionships where they will again get a chance to face USD.
