Nov. 22, 2008

San Pedro, CA - LMU's men's novice 8 had a fine showing Saturday, defeating USC and UCLA at the annual Head of the Harbor event in San Pedro, CA. The Lions got off to a great start to finish in front of both of their local rivals. In the day's other race, the men's varsity 8 came through with a third place finish out of four boats.

Racing a course that was 500m shorter than that of the varsity, the Lion novices jumped in front early and never were caught. LMU's lineup of Spencer Selva (cox), Brian Pede, Eric Liddle, Zach Stuart, Jake Ries, Ryan Tomasich, Rich Mautino, Jonnie Perkins, and Sam Queen finished in 15:10, 15 seconds ahead of USC.

After the race, men's varsity coach Brooks Jones praised the novices and their coach, David Cronin. "David is an excellent coach and role model for his novice squad," Jones said. "His enthusiasm for the sport and development of his athletes is fantastic, he is a real joy to work with every day."

An hour after the novice win, it was the varsity's turn to take to the water. The varsity race was another wire-to-wire lead, this time by UCLA, who crossed the line in 15:24. USC was second, eight seconds back. LMU's boat of Meghan Palmer (cox), Hamilton Hiatt, Patrick Callan, Dominic Leone, Miles Dobbyn, Kyle Hutchison, Christof Wessbecher, Blake Foster, and Jordan Perez placed third in 16:03, 14 seconds in front of UCLA's "B" crew.

"The varsity race was controlled from start to finish by UCLA," Jones said. "We were unable to match their speed as our race plan never came together and the boat struggled to find any rhythm."

The Lions take a break for the winter, returning to action at the end of January.

Men's Novice 8
1st LMU 15:10
2nd USC 15:25
3rd UCLA 17:04
4th UCLA (b) 17:14

Men's Varsity 8
1st UCLA 15:24
2nd USC 15:32
3rd LMU 16:03
4th UCLA (b) 16:17

- GO LIONS -