Texas Wins San Diego Crew Classic
“The Rowing Season Starts Here,” says the San Diego Crew Classic, and for the Texas women, it started right, with clear victories in all four events the Longhorns entered.
“The reasons we come to San Diego every year, first and foremost, is the competition, that is everything.” said Texas coach Dave O’Neill. Texas bested the field of ten top women’s programs in the combined Jessop-Whittier and Cal Cup Collegiate Invitational event.
“And then reason number two is, I do think it’s really important to be at some of these iconic events, like the San Diego Crew Classic, to be seen, and to make it everything that it is.”
Finishing second to Texas by seven seconds was Washington, followed by Cal and UCLA.
“This was the first weekend of 2,000-meter racing for the team and an exciting way to open the season against outside competition — especially for all of our freshmen,” said Yasmin Farooq, now in her tenth year as Washington’s head coach.
“We traveled a full Big Ten championship squad [three eights and two coxed fours] to get a solid first look at how we’re developing, and I was really proud of how everyone showed up today. Getting two high-quality, back-to-back races gave us a ton to learn from, and I’m encouraged by what this group will do in the weeks to come.”
For junior crews, the Crew Classic is more of a mid-season regatta, as some West Coast programs have been racing since winter and are already halfway through their 2026 season.
“The competition is really strong,” said Jaime Velez, Los Gatos Rowing Club’s director of rowing, whose quads won the Concept2 Trophy for women’s youth quads and finished second to Marina Aquatic Center in the women’s U16 coxed quad. “It’s kind of a midseason measure of where we’re at and to see if we’re moving in the right direction. we’re trying to be competitive in every age group. we’re about a month out from our Southwest Regional Championship.”
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