Pilots compete in WCC Rowing Championships, Gold River CA May 18
The 2013 WCC Rowing Championships will be held Saturday May 18th in Gold River, CA.
Let me preface this post by saying that everything I knew about colligate rowing I learned from watching Armie Hammer portray the Winklevii twins in The Social Network. After talking with Portland head coach Bill Zack earlier this week, I’m glad to say my knowledge base has grown 100 fold.
Rowing is an interesting sport in that scoring is based on three races (Varsity 8, Second Varsity 8, and Varsity 4). It’s like if each basketball game were determined by three games, a matchup of each team’s best 5, second best 5, and then a 3 on 3 game. Meaning that each team has to be super deep in order to be competitive.
This can be an issue for a young team like Portland. By that I mean that the program as a whole is young. It has only been recognized as a Div I sport at Portland for two seasons now and have less than 7 scholarships to hand out (Rowing, unlike Basketball and Football, can give partial scholarships).
In their inaugural season, the Pilots placed 5th in the WCC championships. This year’s WCC Championships are this weekend in Sacramento, CA and the Pilots are gunning for the WCC Championship and the one automatic qualifier to the NCAA National Rowing Championships that comes with the title.
Coach Zack has been pleased with the progress his team has made this season saying that “overall our boats are faster, and we’re closing the gap to top boats.”
Despite Coach Zack admitting that it is cliché, his hope for his rowers is that they have their best performance this weekend. While it may be cliché, it is what any fan of any program wants.