With the rowing season close to an end, UCLA could not manage to get a victory in its last race before the Pac-12 championship May 15.
The No. 20 Bruins faced the No. 12 USC Trojans on Saturday at USC’s home venue, the Port of Los Angeles. Each UCLA boat was behind the Trojans by less than nine seconds each race, but could not pull ahead to beat them. However, the first varsity boat was able to improve their time by about two seconds compared to how they raced in Clemson.
“Every race is a learning experience, no matter the results,” said senior varsity eight coxswain Logan Warwick.
The Bruins’ varsity eight crossed the finish line at 6:43.80, just 8.1 seconds behind USC, who finished with a time of 6:35.70. UCLA’s third varsity eight trailed the Trojans by only 3.6 seconds with a time of 7:11.40.
“We are implementing what we are doing in training better and better with every race that we do, so that’s a good thing,” said senior varsity eight bow Alice White.
With the dual meet against the Trojans, it could be thought that the rivalry is intense, but the women look at every race with the same amount of intensity, according to Warwick.
“We are very internally focused and no matter who we are facing at the start line, every race is the same and we execute it the best we can.” White said. “Who we are racing is irrelevant.”
Warwick and White see that improvements will be made within the weeks leading up to the Pac-12 championship and they believe that they will step it up in order to make it to the NCAA championship.
“We have work to do,” Warwick said. “Everyone is working really hard and we’re really focusing on moving forward and improving every single stroke that we take.”
The USC meet and the Pac-12 championship are the last few races for Warwick and White, who are both seniors. Both have mixed feelings about their rowing careers coming to an end, but are making the best of the races and practices that they have left. They said that they are very confident in their team’s abilities to improve their speed and excited to see the results of their hard work in the Pac-12 championship.
Email Olin at tolin@media.ucla.edu or tweet her @tiffany_olin.