Lake Natoma, CA- On Saturday, the 2nd varsity 8 broke into an open four and lightweight four for the Pacific Coast Championships. The open four failed to qualify for the finals but the lightweights struck gold on a very hot Lake Natoma. The lightweight four (Axley, Knight, Kaye, Crane & Munson) had a great start and established a one length lead on the field. “We really moved on the field at the start. I could see the field just falling behind us,” said Marshall Knight.

The Bruins were able to hold off the field’s sprints in the last 500 meters to win by 3.5 seconds over second place Washington State. “We had a good rhythm through the middle thousand that set us up for our strong finish,” coxswain Kelsi Munson.

Sunday brought more hot temperatures and fast racing for the 2008 Pac-10 championships. The Bruin’s novice 8 was able to avenge an early season loss to the Cougars by returning the favor with an open water advantage to take fifth place behind event winner Washington. “This was our best race of the year, stated five seat Daniel Prasch. We can really build on this for next week’s ACRA Championship.”

The 2nd Varsity had a great start but quickly fell off the pace of this four boat race and struggled to find its speed. “That was our worst race of the year, said stroke Andrew Axley. It’s unfortunate to have happened here at the Pac-10’s.”

The Varsity 8 also had a solid start and challenged 12th ranked Oregon State for 4th place through the first 1000 meters. Coxswain Sarah Koff, “We had one of our best first thousands of the year and even put in a pretty good 3rd 500 but we fell apart in the last 500 and didn’t finish the way we wanted.”

Washington, coming from behind, won followed by Cal and Stanford. Oregon State finished 4th followed by UCLA, Washington State and USC.

In the team rankings, the Bruins finished 5th just eight points behind fourth place Oregon State.

“I was happy to see the novices have a good race. They have been working very hard over the past month to turn their season around. It was unfortunate for the second varsity but they have been solid all year and I expect them to be back on pace for next week’s ACRA Championships. We were looking for a much more competitive race from the varsity but will be able to take some things from this in preparation for the ACRA and then the IRA in a couple of weeks,” stated coach Mokha.

The Bruins next compete at the newly formed American Collegiate Rowing Association championships in Oklahoma City, May 24-25.