April 2, 2004

Saturday's Schedule in PDF Format
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Sunday's Schedule in PDF Format
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Los Angeles, CA (April 2) - The Loyola Marymount University crew program will race in the 31st Annual San Diego Crew Classic this weekend, April 3-4, at the Mission Bay, Crown Point Shores Park. The annual event is one of the premier races of the spring season, featuring some of the nation's best.

The 2003 San Diego Crew Classic saw the LMU Women's Varsity 8 reach new levels of success, taking second place out of more than 25 boats in the Grand Final. The Lions have shown improved success so far this season, defeating defending West Coast Conference Champion Gonzaga at the WCC Challenge and sweeping a pair of head-to-head competitions in Miami.

On the men's side, the Varsity 8 team has shown improved times over the course of the season. They also had an impressive showing in the WCC Challenge as they went 2-2 in the head-to-head competitions. They earned wins over Saint Mary's and Portland.

The Lions will enter three teams at the San Diego Crew Classic, the Women's Cal Cup (Varsity 8), Men's Cal Cup (Varsity 8) and Women's JV 8. The schedule for those races are:

Saturday, April 3
7:00 a.m. - Men's Cal Cup Heat A - Lane 5
Teams: Gonzaga, Minnesota, UC San Diego, Santa Clara, LMU, Saint Mary's
7:40 a.m. - Women's Cal Cup Heat B - Lane 2
Teams: Kansas State, LMU, Gonzaga, Navy, Saint Josephs, UC Irvine, Colgate
9:40 a.m. - Women's JV Heat A - Lane 5
Teams: Sacramento State, SMU, Stanford, UCLA, LMU, Wisconsin, Washington State
3:30 p.m. - Women's JV Third - TBA

Sunday, April 4
9:40 a.m. - Women's Cal Cup Third - TBA
9:50 a.m. - Men's Cal Cup Third - TBA
10:20 a.m. - Women's JV Petite - TBA
11:10 a.m. - Women's Cal Cup Petite - TBA
11:20 a.m. - Men's Cal Cup Petite - TBA
12:50 p.m. - Women's JV Grand Final - TBA
1:40 p.m. - Men's Cal Cup Grand Final - TBA
1:50 p.m. - Women's Cal Cup Grand Final - TBA

Over 30 years ago, several San Diegans came together to create the Crew Classic. Most of them came from two rowing clubs The San Diego Rowing Club, which was founded in 1888, and the ZLAC women's rowing club, which was founded in 1892. Patty Wyatt, Joe Jessop Sr., Andy Borthwick and Glenn Rick were proponents of a dedicated San Diego rowing course in protected water. Together with Del Beekley, Al Bernardini, A. Wharton Coggeshall, Annette Frank, Mary Ann Hazard, Richard Jessop, General Victor Krulak, Fred Sharp and Donald Waters, they invented an invitational event to occur early in the year before the formal collegiate racing season began.

The intent was a fun and fair winner-take-all competition for bragging rights between traditional and up-and-coming rowing powers from across the country. It was programmed to be fast moving and on-time, to keep spectators interested and reduce delays. A high priorty from the beginning was exposure of junior rowers to established collegiate programs

Now the group needed teams to compete. With the help of General Krulak, the group persuaded the Naval Academy to participate. The University of Washington, a powerhouse in the West, was also scheduled to compete. UCLA was also part of the first varsity race. So, in April of 1973, the first annual San Diego Crew Classic was up and running and it went over extremely well. The Naval Academy, Washington, Long Beach State, LMU, San Diego State, UC San Diego, Orange Coast College, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara attended the competition. From all around San Diego area and beyond, people came to watch the event and cheer for the schools. Within a few years, the Copley Cup and Jessop-Whittier Cup were established as trophies for the invitational collegiate men's and women's varsity races.

Over the years the Crew Classic has grown in size. Some of the most renowned schools in the United States have competed in the San Diego Crew Classic. Among those are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Notre Dame, Duke, and University of Virginia. Along with junior and collegiate teams, Masters were included. With the increase in the number of organizations competing, the number of people coming to watch increased.

For more information, go to the San Diego Crew Classic website.

- GO LIONS -