Aztec Novice Have Strong Weekend Showing

POSTED MONDAY, NOV 05 2007 AT 9:41 AM

This weekend finally kicked off the fall season's races with the Aztec men appearing at Club Nationals (also called the Norris Cup) at Port of Los Angeles and Newport Autumn Rowing Festival in Newport, Calif.

The weekend started with the Aztecs racing USC, Cal Lightweights, and Arizona State at the Port of Los Angeles. This race was cut short for both the varsity and novice due to a tanker pulling into the port and blocking the course. The novice did a restart however where the 'A' boat came in roughly two lengths behind the USC boat and the 'B' boat sprinted past the Arizona State boat shortly before the line. The varsity boat finished the 3500m abbreviated course roughly three lengths behind Arizona State.

The following day, the SDSU men traveled to Newport, Calif. to race in the annual Newport Autumn Rowing Festival, where they went up against crews from across the state. The mixed Varsity Eight finished with a time of 18 minutes and 56 seconds placing them ahead of only Long Beach. The Varsity Four finished the 4400m course with a time of 19 minutes and 56 seconds beating out Arizona State.

The real excitement of the day came from the novice program, with the Novice 'A' finishing in fourth place out of the 19 boat field behind only Stanford and Orange Coast College, who had two boats finish before the Aztecs. The Novice 'A' boat finished with a time of 16 minutes and 53 seconds, beating the USC boat that had beaten them the day before by two seconds and behind OCC's 'B' by a mere three seconds. This was not the only promising showing, as the Novice 'B' finished with a time of 19 minutes flat and the 'C' boat only shortly behind with a time of 19 minutes, 47 seconds. These Aztec boats finished in twelfth and sixteenth places, respectfully.

This was a great first showing for the Aztecs this season and shows promise of great things to come in the future. This was the Aztec's first weekend of racing this season with as many as three more to come with the Aztecs scrimmaging other San Diego crew next weekend to replace the cancelled Fall Classic. Go AZTECS!!!

National Collegiate Club Championships
Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, Calif.
November 03, 2007

Collegiate Varsity Eight Race

1. USC 'A'
2. Cal Lightweights
3. USC 'B'
4. ASU
5. SDSU

Collegiate Novice Eight Race

1. USC 'A'
2. SDSU 'A'
3. Cal Lightweights
4. SDSU 'B'
5. ASU
6. SDSU 'C'

Newport Autumn Rowing Festival
Newport Beach, Calif.
November 4, 2007
(Top Five and SDSU Men only)

Men's Open Eight (28 boats)

1. Stanford - 14:55
2. OCC 'A' - 14:59
3. UCSD 'A' - 15:19
4. UC Davis 'A' - 15:19
6. UCLA 'A' - 15:24

Men's Novice Eight (19 boats)

1. Stanford - 15:38
2. OCC 'A' - 15:48
3. OCC 'B' - 16:50
4. SDSU 'A' - 16:53
5. USC - 16:55

Men's Open Four (23 boats)

1. Stanford - 16:33
2. UCLA 'A' - 16:53
3. UCSD 'A' - 17:11
4. Sac State - 17:31
5. USC - 17:40