Clemson Wins Five of 12 Races at the 2009 PAC-10 Rowing Challenge

March 30, 2009

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – The Clemson women’s rowing team won five of 12 races at the 2009 PAC-10 Rowing Challenge in Redwood Shores, CA.

Stanford University played host to the event that featured more than 114 crew races between the nation’s top university as well as more than 400 cluband high school rowers. Ranked university women’s squads that took part in the event included #4 Stanford, #5 California, #6 Virginia, #12 Ohio State, and #13 Clemson.

The races were ran head to head with only two boats competing in each race. Overall, Clemson won five of the 12 races the Tigers participated in during the weekend event.

In the Varsity Eight competition, the Tigers raced against two nationally top five teams. In Saturday’s action #4 Stanford’s varsity eight defeated #13 Clemson. The Cardinal turned in a time of 6:27.6 compared to Clemson’s 6:34.6. Later in the day, #5 California won over Clemson as the Golden bears had a time of 6:49.4 compared to Clemson’s 6:52.0. On Sunday UCLA defeated Clemson. The Bruins turned in a time of 6:50.8 while the Tigers were three seconds back with a time of 6:53.8.

In the second Varsity Eight races on Saturday, Stanford won over Clemson with a time of 6:35.5 compared to the Tigers’ 6:39. California edged out Clemson in the same race by 1.8 seconds as the Bears had a time od 7:00.0 compared to Clemson 7:01.8. On Sunday, The Tigers were winners over UCLA as the Tigers had a time of 6:50.6, while UCLA had a time of 7:15.9.

Clemson’s Varsity four won two of the three races. On Saturday in the head to head races, Clemson defeated Stanford as the Tigers had a time of 7:32.7 and the Cardinal had a time of 7:45.5. California won over the Tigers later in the day as the Golden Bears had a time of 8:14.4 and Clemson finished with an 8:18.9 performance. In the Sunday competition, Clemson won the race with UCLA as Clemson finished with a time of 7:42.9 and UCLA had an 8:05.07 mark.

In the novice races, The Tigers novice eight defeated Stanford with a time of 7:09.9 compared to the Cardinal’s time of 7:14.8. California edged the Tigers by less than a second later in the day. The Golden Bears had a time of 7:41.1 compared to Clemson’s 7:41.8. On Sunday the Tigers defeated UCLA by 12.7 seconds as the Tigers’ posted a time of 7:14.1 compared to the Bruins’ effort of 7:26.8.

“We learned a great deal from racing many of the best in collegiate rowing,” said Clemson Head Coach Richard Ruggieri. “We clearly understand where we need to improve, and we are eager to do it. We also learned that our depth is growing. Our 2V8, V4 and N8 crews won five of the nine events.”

Clemson Results in the Pac-10 Rowing Challenge WV8 STANFORD 06:27.6 CLEMSON 06:34.6 WV8 CALIFORNIA 06:49.4 CLEMSON 06:52.0 WV8 UCLA 06:50.8 CLEMSON 06:53.8

W2V8 STANFORD 06:35.4 CLEMSON 06:39.1 W2V8 CALIFORNIA 07:00.0 CLEMSON 07:01.8 W2V8 CLEMSON 06:50.6 UCLA 07:15.9

WV4 CLEMSON 07:32.7 STANFORD 07:45.5 WV4 CALIFORNIA 08:14.4 CLEMSON 08:18.9 WV4 CLEMSON 07:42.9 UCLA 08:05.7

WN8 CLEMSON 07:09.9 STANFORD 07:14.8 WN8 CALIFORNIA 07:41.1 CLEMSON 07:41.8 WN8 CLEMSON 07:14.1 UCLA 07:26.8