April 2, 2012

For the first time in school history, the No. 6 USC women's rowing team won the prestigious Jessop-Whittier Cup at the San Diego Crew Classic for the second year in a row after the Varsity Eight turned in an impressive performance against the top teams in the country. As a team, USC also qualified all three varsity boats for the grand finals of the event.

USC's Varsity Eight dominated their race from beginning to end finishing with a time of 7:03.93, a boat length ahead of No. 1 ranked UVA, No. 8 Washington, No. 2 California, UCLA and No. 5 Stanford to claim the fourth Jessop-Whittier Cup in school history.

"I am very excited about the prospects of the Varsity Eight this season," said head coach Zenon Babraj. "They are a very confident and mature group of athletes who share a strong love for racing."

USC's 2nd Varsity Eight unfortunately drew a very challenging outside lane assignment Sunday that was directly affected by the cross winds and outgoing tide. The boat finished sixth behind UCLA, Washington, Virginia, Stanford and California.

Also drawing the unmanageable lane six assignment was the Trojans Varsity Four boat that placed fifth behind Virginia, Washington State, UCLA and Tennessee in the last grand final appearance of the classic for USC.

"Under challenging race conditions I feel that our team handled the obstacles thrown at them well," said Babraj. "Fortunately for us it is early in the season and our next race at Carnegie Lake against Princeton and Yale should have more favorable conditions. We will have a better assessment of our team then."

In other action, USC's 2nd Varsity Four won their 3rd final by 11 seconds ahead of Stanford. The Novice Eight placed third in the petite final (9th overall).

Full race results and times can be found here http://www.crewclassic.org/results/2012.html

USC returns to action April 14 in Princeton, NJ as they face Princeton and Yale.