Oct. 31, 2008
Los Angeles, CA - A new era of LMU rowing will commence this weekend as Head Coach Dawn Regan takes the helm for the first time at two separate events. First up is the annual home kick-off, with three LMU boats racing at the Head of the Marina on Saturday at Ballona Creek in Marina del Rey. On Sunday, the Lions will send five boats to the Newport Autumn Rowing Festival in Newport Beach.
The Lions will enter three boats into the Head of the Marina on Saturday morning. The men's novice 8 will get things started at 7:50 a.m. against UCLA. An hour later, the women's varsity 8 race will feature two LMU crews, an "A" boat and a "B" boat.
The lineups for LMU are as follows:
Men's Novice 8: Ryan Tomasich, Jake Ries, John Parrish, Sam Queen, Brian Pede, Rich Mautino, Zach Stuart, Sean Dudevoir, Kevin Ma (cox)
Women's Varsity 8 "A": Chris Erhart, Mary Foster, Becky Nolan, Adrienne Lindstrom, Sydney Swanson, Kaitlin Kovacich, Alexa Aftias, Kat Regan, Kayla Pietruszka (cox)
Women's Varsity 8 "B": Bettina Messerli, Sydney Johnson, Michelle Herrerias, Shannon Craig, Kathleen Foster, Liz LaLonde, Mary-Sophia Matlow, Sydney Sutton-Liswith, Jacque Yang (cox)
LMU went undefeated in last year's Head of the Marina races, winning the men's novice 8, women's novice 8, women's varsity 4, and women's open single.
Both women's varsity 8 boats will return to the water on Sunday at 8:15 a.m. in the Newport Autumn Rowing Festival, which traditionally features the top collegiate teams on the west coast. The women's varsity 8 "A" boat finished sixth out of 21 at this event last season while the "B" lineup was not far behind in ninth. Both will be looking not only for an improvement from their 2007 performances, but also a sense of consistency with their second race of the weekend.
The day gets started with Blake Foster making his debut in the men's open single race. He will be competing against some of the top single rowers in the country as the field features athletes from the 2008 Olympics and 2008 U.S. National Team, including former Lion Warren Anderson `06.
At 8:15 a.m, the men's varsity 8 looks to improve on its sixth-place finish in a field of 28 from a year ago. The LMU lineup will consist of Hamilton Hiatt, Patrick Callan, Brandon Sorbom, Evan Yates, James Clinton, Christoff Wessbecher, Dominic Leone, Miles Dobbyn, and Megan Loftus (cox). The final race of the day will be the men's varsity 4 at 9:45 a.m. Always a highly-competitive field, LMU placed a respectable 11th out of 23 last year. This year, the boat will contain Kyle Hutchinson, Kyle Wike, Jonnie Perkins, Eric Liddle, and Megan Loftus (cox). Both races include a strong field, with top collegiate programs Cal, Stanford, UC San Diego, UC Davis, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, Santa Clara, Long Beach State, Sacramento State, San Diego, and Orange Coast College entering boats.
The Head of the Marina and Newport Autumn Rowing Festival are the only events on the fall calendar for the women's team, who will spend the rest of 2008 training for the spring. The Lion men's team will compete in its final event of the fall season on Saturday, November 22, in the Head of the Harbor race in San Pedro.
- GO LIONS -
