Jan. 24, 2008

The 2008 crew season gets underway Saturday in an unconventional fashion at the Beach Sprints in Long Beach. Senior Jill Austin from the women's team will join twenty-two rowers from the men's team to face the challenge of the 2000m indoor course against many of the top collegiate teams in Southern California.

The Beach Sprints is an indoor event held in the exercise room at the Pete Archer Boathouse and hosted by the Long Beach Rowing Club. The event features over 300 rowers in 23 classes competing on Concept 2 Model "D" rowing machines. In events with more than 15 participants, seeded heats will be created. Each competitor will be timed over the 2000m "course" with the fastest time recorded being named the winner.

The event begins at 8:00 a.m. The first LMU rower does not go off until 12:45 p.m. with the last scheduled for 4:00 p.m. The Lions' competitors, their class, and their start times are as follows:
Korbin Duley (Coxswains Men and Women) - 12:45 p.m.
Trevor Moretz (Collegiate Novice Lightweight) - 1:45 p.m.
Sean Freeberg (Collegiate Novice Lightweight) - 1:45 p.m.
Chris Vaughn (Collegiate Novice Men) - 2:15 p.m.
Garrett Laos (Collegiate Novice Men) - 2:30 p.m.
Kyle Hutchison (Collegiate Novice Men) - 2:30 p.m.
James Clinton (Collegiate Novice Men) - 2:30 p.m.
Michael Hunter (Collegiate Novice Men) - 2:30 p.m.
Kyle Wike (Collegiate Novice Men) - 2:30 p.m.
Bentley Eidsmo (Collegiate Novice Men) - 2:30 p.m.
Jill Austin (Collegiate Lightweight Women) - 2:45 p.m.
Landon Storaasli (Collegiate Lightweight Men) - 3:00 p.m.
Miles Dobbyn (Collegiate Lightweight Men) - 3:00 p.m.
Michael Wither (Collegiate Lightweight Men) - 3:00 p.m.
Dominic Leone (Collegiate Lightweight Men) - 3:00 p.m.
Jordan Perez (Collegiate Men) - 3:45 p.m.
John Landwehr (Collegiate Men) - 3:45 p.m.
Patrick Callan (Collegiate Men) - 3:45 p.m.
Hansen Perkins (Collegiate Men) - 3:45 p.m.
Hamilton Hiatt (Collegiate Men) - 3:45 p.m.
David Cronin (Collegiate Men) - 4:00 p.m.
Scott Wike (Collegiate Men) - 4:00 p.m.
Mark Stellner (Collegiate Men) - 4:00 p.m.

Last season, eight Lions won medals at the Beach Sprints. Jill Austin took the open lightweight women's event and Mike Wither, Patrick Callan, and Dominic Leone swept the top three spots in the novice lightweight category while Landon Storaasli and Kevin Druffel-Rodriguez took home gold and silver in the varsity lightweight. John McAndrew and Tim Santy each won bronze medals in the novice men's and collegiate men's races, respectively.

Complete race information can be found here.