Cherry Hill, NJ- Competing under the back drop of the IRA Steward’s decision to eliminate club programs from future IRA’s the Bruins took on a field of 24 varsity fours vying for an IRA title.

Thursday brought a time trail format with the top 12 times moving on to Friday’s A/B Semifinal. UCLA started fourth in the 1750 meter time trial. “We had a great rhythm, Nicholas Krimmel said, it almost felt easy.” That row was good enough for the fourth fastest time of the day and a seeded position in the semifinals.

Pressure built in Friday’s semifinals with the top three finishers going to Saturday’s Grand final. Washington and Brown took the early lead. “We had a slow start, Sarah Koff said, but we didn’t panic.” The Bruins sat 5th at the beginning of the second 500 meters but used the second quarter of the race to move through Rutgers and put pressure on 3rd place Temple. “We had a solid rhythm and were ready for the 3rd 500,” Martin Reschke said. The Bruin Varsity 4 (Reschke, Venardi, Stapleton, Krimmel, Koff) moved past Temple into the last qualifying spot and made a big charge in the last 500 meters on Brown and Washington who held the top two spots. “The guys started a little slower than we wanted but had a very good second thousand,” Coach Mokha said.

Saturday brought extreme heat that moved the race schedule earlier in the day but didn’t affect the fast racing. The Bruins, racing in lane 6, again got a slow start as Marist and Washington quickly moved to the front of the pack. At the halfway point the Bruins had moved through Brown into 5th and began to move on 4th place Cal. The pace of the race was too much for the Burins as Washington passed Marist for the gold in the last 500 meters followed by Cornell, Cal, UCLA and Brown. “We didn’t have the same rhythm we had the last two races and fell too far behind,” said Brad Stapleton.

“I thought we had a good shot at a medal from the way the crew raced thus far but didn’t put together the type of race needed in a championship like this, said Coach Mokha. It was a pattern we saw all season.”

Thus concludes the 75th anniversary season for the UCLA Bruins.