Mills College WeeklyThough they didn’t win, the Mills Cyclones Crew team saw the
novice rowers improve their personal best last Saturday, as the
women significantly improved their previous time.
The novice-8 rowers’ final time in the 2K race was 8:10, a full
20 seconds quicker than their previous best of 8:30.
“Twenty seconds is a lot and that’s always good,” said
freshwoman Clara Andres. “It’s hard because you’re just supposed to
pull and not turn around to look at other boats. When you finish,
you have no idea how you did usually.”
Novice rower Kyla McKenrick said that despite the challenge of
rowing, she enjoys being on the team, and the races are always
fun.
Head coach Wendy Franklin told the novice team it was the best
she’d seen them row yet, despite the cloudy day. “Everyone does an
amazing job, even when the weather’s bad.” The team also dealt with
late starts for all three races.
In the varsity-8 race, delayed for over an hour, an oar caught
in a buoy line resulted in a minor injury for varsity rower Mary
Kay Chin. “I was almost swimming,” Chin said, after straining her
hip to stay in the boat. “It cost us quite a few seconds too.”
Chin said her paddle hooked the buoy at its anchor line as it
was coming up and out of the water, causing the buoy to wrap around
the paddle.
The team had three rowers already out with injuries for
Saturday’s meet, but Chin said on Monday that she was not seriously
injured.
Varsity rower Martina Chavez said, “It was fun, except for that
buoy part.”
Competing against Mills were teams from Santa Clara Univ.,
Sonoma State, Humboldt, and the Cal Lightweight team, the Cyclones
raced on March 27 at the Jack London Aquatic Center in Oakland.
The team is now preparing for their trip to the Northwest
Regional Intercollegiate Invitational Regatta in Vancouver, Wash.,
the first weekend in April.
“Hopefully, we’ll kick ass,” Andres said with a smile.
