Friends of UCI Rowing - ACRA ChampionshipsFinishing sprint for successful season
Friends of UCI Rowing
American Collegiate Rowing Association
ACRA National Championships   Â
Sun sets on the trailer and shells near Holbrook Arizona. Thankfully another uneventful trailer round trip!
Friends and Family
UC Irvine Rowing traveled to Oak Ridge Tennessee to race at the ACRA National Rowing Championships May 17-19.
Both the women's and men's team competed with four eights each, with a sculler and a couple spares and coaches was a traveling squad of 80.  The team did a tremendous job handling logistics, with great teamwork on boat loading, rigging, de-rigging, travel logistics and meals.
The women's team finished 3rd out of 55 in team points. Coach Mike Homes was selected West region coach of the year.
ACRA All Academic First Team:
William Rubio
Benjamin Hendricks
Kayla Hogan
Lauren Hoofard
Second Team:
Colby Irvine
Vincent Olmos
Adi Singh
Brynn Bedal
Mary Ajemyan
Isabella Gonzales
Kaija Trinh
Miki Kusaka
Natalie Oshefski
Women's Varsity Eight
The Women's V8 raced a great regatta acheiving the best result in our history with a close 4th place finish, just out of the medals   Above pictured is the final race, the starting line at Melton Lake with UCI on the far left lane 1, and in the heat of battle at 1000 meters.Â
Lineup
C: Haley MacKay - 3rd team All American
8: Kayla Hogan - 1st team All American
7: Lauren Hoofard
6: Brynn Bedal - All Region
5: Brielle Kidder - 3rd team All American
4: Caroline Whitmer
3: Isabella Gonzales
2: Belinda Oceguera
1: Paige Newport
The women's third varsity, a combination of half novice and half varsity accomplished a hstoric first, a second entry in the second varsity event, finishing second in the petite finals to UCSB's 2V .  This boat is a symbol of the growing depth of the women's team with athletes putting pressure on both the 2V and 1N crews.Â
Lineup above:
C: Michelle Yang
8: Lorrina Lee
7: Savannah Banks
6: Janelle Franco
5: Kaitlin Gonzalez
4: Pragya Jhunjhunwala
3: Julia Macawili
2: Meixin Shi
1: jeslin alvarez
Women's Novice Eight
Like the men's novice team, the women's team benefitted from another round of winter recruiting adding some excellent athletes to the squad.  The novice had two athletes where nationals was their first race.
Their improvement over the races was visible and finished with a powerful win in the petite final
Lineup:
C: Haley Kay
8: Mary Ajemyan
7: Kyla Mendez
6: Emma Spindt
5: Odessa Volynsky
4: Sandra Dawoud
3: Emma Zelinsky
2: Michelle Baasandorj
1: Stephanie Spidle
Men's Varsity Eight
After charging to a fast finiish at WIRA, we fell quite flat at ACRA. Injuries got in the way of prep work after WIRA, but that should have been overcome.  The last race was a great experience with fun lead changes and tight finish which is why ACRA is such a great regatta. Â
Lineup:
C: Arleigh Burnham
8: Sahil Desai
7: Matthew Remley
6: Benjamin Hendricks
5: Jacob Choi
4: Nathaniel Green
3: Colby Irvine
2: Tyler Matthews
1: Matthew Zaragoza
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Men's Second Varsity
A big goal we had this year for the program was a competitive 2nd varsity.  This was a tough road, as we had a lot of attrition in the varsity program this Fall and early January.  So we filled boat with 4 novices from 2nd novice group.
At ACRA we had a series of great races.  While we didn't finish high in standings, we beat UC Davis who'd clocked us at WIRA and hung in for 1200 meters with OCC.
Lineup:
C: Aditya Singh
8: Jacob Chow
7: Miles Crook
6: Antonio Soto
5: Beckham Jenkins
4: kale irby
3: Zachary Irwin
2: Jonathan Pan
1: Winston Doud
Men's Novices
Coach Carlos did a tremendous job getting a large number of athletes out and keeping them. At the end of the season, we had two and half boats of novices, nearly Three, with First Novice, only one of 2 second novices at ACRA from west coast, and four novices in the 2V.
A good number of good athletes were recruited in the winter which meant crews not quite up to their ability in the ACRA racing.Â
Still, the 1N improved with every race, the 2N made the grand final and the four in the 2V rowed great.Â
Lineups First Novice:
C: Ashley Cheng
8: Jack Berry
7: Aden Tomlinson
6: Jake England
5: Jackson Pusztai
4: Nikita Pisarevich
3: William Rubio
2: Christian Dolce
1: Saalar Behbahan
2ND Novice
C: Kayla Garcia
8: Vincenzo Olmos
7: Tanush Goel
6: Brady Fendt
5: Reed Sinclair
4: Asher Ding
3: chenglong cai
2: Orlando Ye
1: Manav Anand
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On Saturday Night, the alumni sponsored dinner for the whole team and families at restaurant hear the hotel.  Above left are Matt and Colby, both pre-med students connecting with Dr Chris Bradburne, and a table of some of the parents for the men's and women's teams.
The teams and alums got some meanngful time together, definitely a highlight of the trip.
Thank you Dave Lebel, Chris Fiege-Kollman, Mark and Chris Bradburne, and Didi Yeh!!
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UCI Leadership Academy
The UCI Leadership Academy is an ongoing effort to connect current students with alums and friends who can mentor and advise in their professions and/or avocations. Â
Students have shadowed alums in their jobs, been offered opportunities at internships and gotten help with networking and job applications.Â
It is a unique and special program.Â
I've set up a google form to see if it'll help connect alums with students.  It's a simple form that populates a spreadsheet. Student and alum/friend fill out the same form, the results will populate in a spreadsheet that form users will have access to peruse.Â
We've collected a good number of participants who'll be receiving a list of candidate contacts via email.
