Men's Varsity Eight Wins Petite Final at San Diego Crew Classic

Saturday, April 5

Mission Bay - San Diego, CA

TBA

Drexel University

San Diego Crew Classic

Men's Varsity Eight Wins Petite Final at San Diego Crew Classic

5/2/2008 2:42:27 PM | Men's Rowing

San Diego, Calif. - The Drexel men's varsity eight completed an impressive showing at the 2008 San Diego Crew Classic with a first-place finish in the Petite Final. in the Men's Collegiate Varsity Cal Cup Division. The Dragons finished third in their preliminary heat behind UCLA and Santa Clara but ahead of Texas and San Diego State. The Dragons' third place finish earned them a place in the petite final where they took first place leading the race wire-to-wire against entrants from Notre Dame, San Diego, Washington State, Colorado and Texas.

With just 500 meters to go in the two kilometer race, the Dragons were in fourth place in the preliminary heat. Drexel was able to pull into third place as the boat erased a two-second deficit to Texas to pull in front and finish with a time of 6:06.44. UCLA finished in first place with a time of 6:00.69 while Santa Clara finished at 6:02.47. Fourth-place Texas crossed the line at 6:09.04 while San Diego State finished fifth with a time of 6:37.48.

In the petite final, the Dragons raced out to a one-second lead over nearest competitor, San Diego, in the first 500 meters. Halfway through the race, Drexel extended its lead to 1.21 seconds over San Diego though the Torreros started closing in the next 500 meters as the Dragons advantage was shaved to 0.78 seconds with 500 meters to go. The Dragons would not be denied though as they pulled away toward the finish with a time of 6:04.30 more than one second better than San Diego's time of 6:05.55. Notre Dame took third place with a time of 6:06.41 while Washington State finished fourth with a time of 6:10.80. Texas and Colorado finished fifth and sixth, respectively.