NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin The men’s club rowing team
works in unison en route to a victory over LMU at Marina Del Ray on
Saturday.
By Mayar Zokaei
Daily Bruin Contributor
For the past two seasons, the UCLA men’s rowing team had
shared their Marina Del Rey boathouse with Loyola Marymount after
the Lions’ own floating structure sank in 2000.
LMU overlooked the Bruins’ courtesy and decimated UCLA
every time the clubs engaged in competition. The Lions eventually
got a new boathouse and moved out.
Saturday, it was time for UCLA to get rid of the negative
ambiance left by the Lions in the boathouse by using their brooms
and doing a little spring cleaning. Spearheaded by a two-second
victory in the men’s Varsity-8 race, the Bruins swept all
three races against the Lions this weekend, taking home the trophy
in the second annual Guy Lundberg Memorial Cup match.
“It felt really good to get this (win),” UCLA head
coach Aaron McMahon said. “This year is a definite
turnaround, and I think today we definitely turned the
corner.”
The Bruins had to stave off both LMU and USC in the second
men’s race of the day, the Varsity-4 race. The Trojans
fielded teams in the Novice-8 and Varsity-4 divisions to atone for
canceling a match against the Bruins a few weeks ago. LMU finished
second in the race, followed by USC and the UCLA “B”
team.
After the day’s racing, however, UCLA was quick to defer
talk of an “upset” or “shocking
victory.”
“Based on the times we’ve had in practice, we knew
we were coming in the favorite,” Varsity-8 member Justin
Owens said. “But we knew with Loyola Marymount, the momentum
would still be theirs.”
“We had beat them before in the Varsity-4, but it felt
great to beat them in the Varsity-8,” Mike Robrock said.
UCLA, which placed 8th out of two dozen teams in last
weekend’s San Diego Crew Classic, notched its first victory
Saturday in the Novice-8, crossing the finish line 20 seconds
faster than second-place LMU. USC came in third, followed by the
UCLA “B” team.
The Bruins took home the Lundberg Cup after LMU won it in last
year’s inaugural trophy race. Lundberg was a former UCLA crew
competitor who passed away last year.
The race also marked the culmination of the Bruins’ annual
men’s crew mural, completed this year by third-year coxswain
Chris Richardson. Richardson, who is preparing to take his MCAT
this Saturday, spent an average of two hours a day over the course
of the last two weeks in collaboration with other crew teammates to
complete the project.
The Bruins also won’t be resting on their laurels. They
anticipate rigorous competition in upcoming dual races against
Stanford and California, and are primed to make a splash in the
Pac-10 Conference tournament in May.
But for now, relishing the victory over their former boathouse
mates won’t hurt either.
“Since my freshman year, about 10 or 12 races, we’ve
never beaten them,” Varsity-8 member Tom Scopazzi said.
“We raced great.”