Oct. 30, 2009

LOS ANGELES - LMU's fall rowing schedule is in full swing as the Lions compete against the best crews on the West Coast this month. Last week, LMU had a strong showing at the Head of the American race in Sacramento and this week, they travel to race in the Newport Autumn Rowing Festival (NARF) in Newport Beach on Sunday. Elsewhere, former rower Warren Anderson `06 competed for the Great Eight International boat at the 45th Head of the Charles regatta on October 19.

A busy weekend of rowing begins on Saturday on Ballona Creek with the annual Head of the Marina race between LMU and UCLA. The Lions will send a novice 8 boat up against the Bruins with the race starting at 7:30 a.m. Fans are welcome to watch the race from the Jane Browne Bove Boathouse.

On Sunday, the Lions will battle a number of SoCal schools in the annual Newport Autumn Rowing Festival at the Newport Aquatic Center. LMU will send the women's 8, men's 8, and men's 4 shells. The men's 8 will kick off the day's racing at 8 a.m., follwed by the women's 8 at 8:15 a.m. The fours will take to the water at 10:15 a.m.

Click here for a full race schedule, directions, and race day information.

The Lions sent four boats last weekend to the Head of the American regatta, held on Saturday, October 24 at Lake Natoma in Sacramento. The races featured many of the top schools in the west, including Cal, Stanford, USC, and Sacramento State. LMU's top finisher was the varsity 4, which rowed to a fifth place finish out of 19 boats in a time of 20:02. The Lion boat featured Shannon Craig, Christine Erhart, Kat Regan, Maggie Boze, and coxwain Kayla Pietruszka. LMU trailed only two Cal boats, USC, and Stanford, while beating the likes of Sacramento State, two other Cal boats, and the "B" boats from Stanford and USC.

The other women's boat to compete was the varsity 8, featuring Bettina Messerli, Sydney Sutton-Liswith, Adrienne Lindstrom, Michelle Herrerias, Mackenzie Piper, Sydney Swanson, Mary Foster, Liz LaLonde, and Pietruszka as the cox. Facing another strong field of Pac-10 schools, the Lions placed eighth out of 15 boats, including a win over West Coast Conference foe Saint Mary's. LMU's time was 18:49.

On the men's side, the Lions also had a varsity 4 and a varsity 8 in action. The fours, behind Brian Pede, Richard Milne, Ryan Tomasich, Jes Bickart, and coxwain Jennifer Sonnier, rowed to the finish in 20:21, good enough for sixth. In the eights, LMU's boat placed seventh out of 12 in 16:25, with only four Cal boats, a club, and Santa Clara in front of them. LMU's lineup was Dominic Leone, Miles Dobbin, Brandon Sorbom, Patrick Callan, Kyle Hutchison, Evan Yates, Mike Wither, and Scott Charette.

On the other side of the country, Anderson, a 2006 LMU graduate, continues to shine at the national level. On October 19 in Boston, Anderson filled in for an absent teammate as the American representative at the 45th Head of the Charles regatta. Racing in the "Great Eight" boat that featured eight different rowers from eight different nations, Anderson and his team overcame a broken rudder to win by more than a dozen seconds. The Great Eight crossed the line in 14:33.239, well ahead an international field that included the US and German national teams. Anderson, who rowed for the US as a single sculler, was in fine company as he was the only member of his boat who had yet to compete at the Olympics. His teammates included the top six finishers from Beijing: Olaf Tufte of Norway, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, Maeyens, Campbell, and Lassi Karonen of Sweden, as well as Iztok Cop of Slovenia (a former Olympic doubles champion) and Marcel Hacker of Germany (singles bronze medallist at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney).

Click here to read the full recap of the Great Eight race from the Boston Globe.