USC Rowing Wins Big Against Rival UCLA

The USC women’s rowing team started aggressively and finished the same way, defeating rival UCLA, 5-2, at the UCLA Boathouse in Marina del Rey on Saturday morning.

USC won both the varsity eight and second varsity eight races, which are worth 3 and 2 points toward team scoring, respectively. They did this by getting out to a quick start and never relinquishing their lead.

In the first varsity eight race, the undefeated USC team of Dionne Licudine, Ivana Filipovic, Maria Wilgotsson, Lenka Vrecnikova, Magda Janicka, Anna Wierbowska, Jelena Zelenovic, Iskra Angelovaa and Helen Tinku posted a time of 6:22.30, nearly 15 seconds better than UCLA.  

“After we broke it open, we were just working on it as if we were at the Pac-10 championships,” Licudine said. “We were focused on a whole different race.”

With this being the last race for both teams before the Pac-10 championships May 13-14, both teams were as focused as making the final necessary improvements as they were on beating their biggest rival.

For USC, that meant improving their stroke rate to 36-37 strokes per minute, which they achieved.

However, USC coach Zenon Babraj was more impressed with the improvement he saw from his second varsity eight, consisting of Tanya Ouyang, Vineta Moca, Ewa Tymoszewska, Kajsa Olsson, Jelena Miladinovic, Marlena Adamska, Anna Janicka, Kinga Mikolajczyk and Liene Stuberovska. They defeated UCLA by 5 seconds, finishing with a time of 6:33.30.

“Our goal for today was to see second varsity eight have a good race and improve, and they did that,” Babraj said. “They showed big potential. They looked technically comfortable for the first time this season, and that was good to see.”

Ouyang agreed the season couldn’t have ended better for her team.

“We’re pretty confident in the results,” Ouyang said. “We’re ready to end the season with a big bang, and this was a good start.”

Despite the loss, UCLA was also pleased with how they earned their two points: winning the varsity four and novice eight races.

On a day when UCLA honored its seven seniors, it was the freshmen and sophomore who shined, providing a spark of excitement for the future of the program.

The varsity four, which consists of sophomore Hilary Caldwell, freshman Amanda Fox, sophomore Lauren Leibovitch, sophomore Alexis McPhee and sophomore Tamar Schaap, trailed by more than a length in the second half of the race and made up the distance to win by 3.5 seconds.

“We just followed the race plan and didn’t give up,” Caldwell said. “We tried to beat them off the start, and we came close. We made our move at 650 meters. We knew what we have left, dug deep and worked together as a boat.”

The novice eight, which consists of rowers in their first year of varsity rowing, won by 12 seconds.

“We’re a young program on the rise,” UCLA coach Amy Fuller Kearney said. “It’s exciting to see.”