This post was updated April 26 at 3:30 p.m.
Everything is in the books for the UCLA women’s rowing team, save for its biggest regattas of the year.
After finishing up the Clemson Invitational on Sunday morning, all UCLA has left on the schedule are dates with USC, the Pac-12 championship and, should the team qualify, the NCAAs.
In the B final for the varsity eight, UCLA edged out Central Florida to claim first place by just over a second. The top four teams in the heat all were within a second and a half of each other, with fourth-place Oklahoma crossing the finish line in 6 minutes, 34.525 seconds and UCLA finishing in 6:33.454.
It was the first time all season that junior port Sierra Bronkhorst took the stroke seat in UCLA’s top boat.
In every race of the year, with the exception of the San Diego Crew Classic, Saskia Budgett had been in the stroke seat for the Bruins, though the sophomore port sat two positions up behind Bronkhorst and senior port Marie Jacquet in South Carolina over the weekend.
Two of the Bruins’ three other B finals came down to less than a second, though UCLA finished in the middle of the pack in each.
The second varsity eight finished about six seconds behind Washington State and Oklahoma, which finished within three-quarters of a second to each other, and the varsity four finished about five seconds behind Washington State and Minnesota, which also finished within three-quarters of a second to each other. The Cougars took first in both races.
In the second varsity four, the Bruins finished eight seconds behind the leader, Syracuse.