April 25, 2004

Marina del Rey, CA (April 24) - The Loyola Marymount University women's Varsity 8 crew team earned a rare tie in the Grand Final of the 2004 Norman Miller Cup Regatta with UCLA on Saturday at Ballona Creek in Marina del Rey.

Racing in the Grand Final against UCLA and San Diego, the Lions finished in a "dead heat" with the Bruins at 6:17.4. San Diego came in a distant third at 6:52.0.

UCLA began the Varsity 8 race with a good start, taking a slight lead on LMU. Both LMU and UCLA jumped out early on San Diego. LMU spent most of the 1750-meter race slowly chipping away at the Bruins lead created at the start of the race. The Lions, however, moved up in the final 100 meters as it became anyone's race the final 10 strokes. Both teams crossed the line at the same time and after review was ruled a "dead heat."

The Lions team of Blake Boyer (coxswain), Caitlin McClain, Kathryn Holzberger, Vanessa Glendenning, Naomi Hoogesteger, Lot Keijzer, Beth Henderson, Erin Ludwig and Sarah Daum advanced to the Grand Final by defeating San Diego State and UC Irvine in Heat 1 earlier in the day with a time of 6:33.1.

Also racing for the Lions on the day was the Varsity 4 and JV8 teams. The Varsity 4 team showed improvement in both the heat and Petite Final. In the Heat they finished behind UCLA and San Diego State with a time of 8:23 and then just an hour later finished the Petite Final in 8:46.8. The Varsity 4 was comprised of Tracy Vaiuso (coxswain), Diana Mazenko, Jen Aronson, Jessica Butler and Jen Longhurst.

The JV8 team of Julia Paradiso (coxswain), Meggan Brunette, Liz Stewart, Kristin Lumm, Courtney Cox, Angela Tanner, Amy Lauber, Ashlee Pierce and Sylvia Olvera finished second in Heat 2 in a time of 6:55.4, trailing San Diego State by just two seconds. They finished the Grand Final in 6:58.7.

All three teams for the women's crew program will race for the West Coast Conference championship on Friday when they travel to the WCC title race at Lake Natoma in Sacramento, Calif.

- GO LIONS -