Junior Veronica Gomez and senior Michelle O’Keefe closed out the season by defeating Sacramento State by four seconds in the crew team’s final race.

For the first time since 2006, the crew team earned a medal, third place for a women’s pair, in a championship race. The Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association championship regatta on Lake Natoma in Sacramento on May 2, marked the end of the season for the men and women’s teams.

“It was like all this hard work for these four years had paid off,” O’Keefe said. “We finally got recognized for all the work we put in and the whole team was supportive of [Gomez] and I.”

O’Keefe and Gomez rowed the entire race despite an equipment failure.

“The starboard top bolt came off the rigger about 500 meters into the race,” Gomez said. “So we rowed the whole way down the course worried that [O’Keefe’s] oar lock would come off – but it didn’t – and we still got third place.”

The other boats to race that weekend were the women’s varsity eight and the men’s novice and varsity fours-the numbers referring to the amount of rowers in the boat.

The men’s varsity four came in third for its heat and third for its petit final. The novice four came in fifth for its heat and did not qualify for finals. The eight came in last for its heat and petit final, but the women are getting better at closing the distance, Gomez said.

Part of the team’s difficulties has come from injuries for some of the rowers. The men’s team wasn’t able to row an eight because of injuries and the small ratio of veterans, said freshman Jake Weinberg. And the women’s varsity eight has only three varsity rowers.

Much of the season was spent getting the new rowers acclimated to the sport and the team.

“The season was tough for us as a team, and since there were only three varsity rowers on the team it was hard teaching the novices to row. But they really improved and we always had smiles on our faces,” O’Keefe said.

A lot of people join in the fall and spring only to decide they don’t want to continue with the sport because of the time needed. For example, crew athletes wake up at 5:30 a.m. for practice every morning, Gomez and O’Keefe said.

“When people quit it makes people really bond. It makes a tight-knit group. It’s positive and negative,” Weinberg said. “Would we like to have a lot of people on the team? Absolutely. But for the people who do stay it creates an environment where we do that much more in a single practice.”

To prepare for next season, the team will be looking for new rowers, working out and practicing, Weinberg said.

“We’ll need to do lots of recruiting and hopefully continue to do some off-season workouts on our own so we can come back in shape. To dominate them, pulverize them and slap them down like the hand of God,” Gomez said.


Contact this reporter: liz.nihill@thepantheronline.com