Collins Cup 2022

By Sophomore Michaela Lewis (3rd from the right)

The women’s rowing team headed up to Northern California to race Stanford and Cal on Saturday and scrimmage Davis on Sunday. It was a great experience for us not only to be racing some really fast D1 teams and a team we will see again soon but also to experience a long travel race weekend. 

The team traveled up on Friday and rested up for our first round of racing on Saturday morning. Our goal for our racing against Cal and Stanford was to just hit the first thousand as hard as we could and see what we could do. In our first race against Cal we hit it hard off of the start and were a couple of seats up off of the start, we held on to them for the first eight hundred meters until they moved. It was a tough race and we came back to the dock with a lot of feedback from the piece, specifically small technical things to work on in our next race. Lining up against Stanford, we had the same goal of hitting it hard for the first thousand but also to use the feedback from our last race and implement the changes this time around. During our second race, Stanford was up on us off of the start but we stayed internal and made all of the changes that we had brought up in between races. Collectively we pushed hard, focused on the changes we wanted to make and made it our best piece of the weekend.

After a morning of racing we headed back to the house where we had some food, showered, and napped before doing anything else. We had a very mellow day to recover and prepare for Sunday. For dinner, we went out to get food from around Berkeley and we headed up to one of my favorite viewpoints to watch the sunset together. It was a great way to end the day and share a place that I really enjoy with people that I really appreciate. We headed home after dinner and got ready to get going for our final race of the weekend with Davis, we got to bed early in order to prepare for another early morning. 

Sunday morning rolled around and we headed out to Davis to meet up with the rest of the Women’s team and race. At this point, the busy weekend was starting to hit us and we all felt a little tired but were pumped up to race one more time. We got out on the water and raced hard one last time in a close race with the UC Davis women, we were even with them for the first thousand and held on when they started to make some moves. We held on to them in the end and end up a length down to finish off the weekend. We closed it all out with a nice brunch with the UC Davis women and headed back home to Irvine.

It was a really solid learning weekend for the whole crew with a lot of confidence and improvement gained from our races. We gained a lot of good racing experience and watched a lot of great racing throughout the weekend and are excited to tackle the rest of the season with the knowledge we gained. 

UC Irvine Crew Races at Huskie's Opening Day Regatta 

UCI Student-Rower: UCI hallmark, “We always find a way forward.”

April 2, 2022

Seattle – The UC Irvine Men’s rowing team joined the University of Washington Huskies on Montlake Cut as the Huskies hosted their Husky Open Regatta. It was the first time UCI has been back to the event in over 41 years. UCI was the only collegiate club team competing, facing off against Division-1 crews, including multiple Pac12 boats from University of Washington and Oregon State University, as well as the University of British Columbia and Western Washington University. 

The closest race of the regatta came in the Collegiate Varsity Four race between UCI, UW, Western Washington, and Oregon State. UCI, with coxswain Carlos Dominguez and stroke Cole Villa, was ahead for most of the race–the only crew to lead UW boats in any event–battling a veteran UW Husky crew. It was the second race of the morning for both crews. The Huskies made a charge in the last 200 meters to nip UCI at the line. UCI Coach AJ Brooks, a UW alumni and four-time UW National Champion himself, described the opportunity and challenge for the UCI crew, “Washington is an incredibly deep elite rowing program with over 120 years of championship history.  Our student-athletes have worked hard to integrate that culture here. The boats we faced today include US champions, national team prospects from the select U23 boat, Henley Royal Regatta medalists, and some of the best rowers from around the world.  That our men competed well at this high level is a unique learning and life experience. The support we received from UW shows the class of their program. Yes, we aimed to win the Varsity Four, but we competed as well or better than most of the D1 crews here.  I’m proud of our team.  Now it’s time to take lessons from this regatta and find more speed.”

UCI’s Varsity eight also raced UW’s 3V and freshman eight. UCI came off the line well and put up a solid fight through much of the race.  UCI finished third in a time of 6:10:455, seconds behind the two Washington eights and well ahead of UBC.  Alex Wearn, stroke of the UCI eight said, “We got off well and were battling UW closely, but sagged in the 3rd 500. We came back strong, but you can’t do well for only ¾’s of any race and expect to win.” He added, “It was an amazing experience. Montlake Cut is an iconic rowing venue and UW is one of the most storied programs in the US. We had many variables to deal with from a new course and water to borrowing boats that UW graciously lent us.  We feel good about our effort in the eight, but we can and will go faster. We’re looking forward to gaining speed for Western Regionals and the National Championships.”

Phil Lectner, a first-year PhD student in Chemistry, sitting bow of the UCI Varsity boat, added, “It’s amazing.  UCI crew always finds a way to get to the starting line and compete with the best.  As a new student here, I feel like that’s a hallmark of UC Irvine and our team: We always find a way forward.”

UCI men’s rowing club is currently ranked 3rd in the US by the American Collegiate Rowing Association and first on the West Coast. UCI next competes in Newport Beach in the Collins Cup Regatta.