Making its first appearance at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, Pa. since taking third in the 2004 grand final, the UC Davis women’s rowing team made its return known.
“We wanted to focus on our race plan and not everybody else,” said head coach Carissa Adams. “We felt if we could execute our race place then we could win.”
And the team did exactly that, claiming the Evelyn Bergman Trophy when it won the six-team grand final race Saturday with a time of 6 minutes and 34.01 seconds.
The Aggies finished the 2,000-meter course first with a boat composed of coxswain Tara Davis, Sunny Caldwell at stroke, Alicia Foley at seven, May Roberts at six, Vanessa Cuellar at five, Heidi Okowitz at four, Lucci Lautze at three, Erin Andrews at two and Laura Kelleher at bow.
In all, the 70th annual Dad Vail Regatta featured over 40 boats in the women’s varsity eight. Along with UC Davis, the final six crews were Sacramento State, Purdue, Buffalo, San Diego and St. Joseph’s.
With the first-place finish this weekend, the Aggies have won nine out of their 11 races this season with only the PCRC and Pacific-10 championships to come.
MAX ROSENBLUM can be reached at sports@californiaaggie.com.
