June 9, 2004

SAN DIEGO - Two boats winning the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) championships highlighted Jennifer Zebroski's first season as head coach of the women's crew team at San Diego State. The season, however, began 6-1/2 months prior to that momentous regatta.

The fall season, consisting of races approximately 5000 meters long, began with the Head of the American regatta in Sacramento, Calif., where the Aztecs sent three boats who finished eighth, 10th and 12th in the 16-team event. SDSU followed that up the next day with the Head of the Estuary in Oakland, Calif., placing first, second and fourth in the scaled-down four-team event.

The Newport Fall Rowing Festival saw the novice boat have an impressive performance, placing fourth in the 27-team event, while the three boats competing in the 25-team open eight race had sixth-, 12th- and 19-place outings.

Finally racing on their home waters in Mission Bay for the final fall race, the Aztec rowers placed first, second and sixth in the open eight race, while the two novice boats placed first and fifth out of 21. The novice four won its three-boat competition.

The Parker Cup Regatta saw the Aztecs commence their spring season, which consists of 2000-meter races. Two winning crews, novice four and novice eight, and a pair of second-place finishes by the varsity and junior varsity eight boats saw the season get off to a successful start in the regatta held in Marina Del Rey, Calif.

The prestigious San Diego Crew Classic was the next challenge for the Aztecs, as they would face many of the best teams in the country in the regatta that regularly draws more than 15,000 rowing fans. The nationally-ranked lightweight eight squad, sixth in the national polls at the time, finished sixth in championship competition for the A.W. Coggeshall Cup.

The successful day at the San Diego Crew Classic was followed two weeks later at the San Diego City Championships with the Aztecs toppling their city rivals, the University of San Diego and UC San Diego, in four of the six races (junior varsity, lightweight eight, novice eight and novice four) and placing second in the other two (varsity eight and varsity four).

The Miller Cup was highlighted by the Aztec novice eight boat's performance, a second-place finish in the grand final, to finish behind only UCLA by a scant 3.5 seconds. The performance in Marina Del Rey, Calif., was only a precursor to the boat's spectacular performance at the WIRA championships the next weekend in Sacramento, Calif.

Championships by both the novice eight and lightweight eight boats highlighted the weekend for the Aztecs. The novice rowers raced ahead of host Sacramento State to place first out of 19 boats while the lightweight eight beat out California, Pacific Lutheran and UC San Diego to claim a championship. The varsity boat placed third in the petite final while the junior varsity was fifth in the grand final.

At the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships the following weekend, also held in Sacramento, Calif., the lightweight eight boat placed second behind Stanford, while the varsity four and novice four boats each earned third-place performances.

The novice eight won the petite final at the next day's Pac-10 Championships in Sacramento, Calif., while the junior varsity eight placed fourth and the varsity eight was seventh.

The final racing of the season lied in the hands of the lightweight eight boat, who entered the prestigious Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships, the national championships for lightweight rowing, ranked No. 10 nationally by USRowing. The Aztecs held their placing exactly, placing 10th overall with a fourth-place finish in the petite final. The 12-team competition included each of the top 10 teams.

Two Aztec rowers earned national scholar-athlete honors, as awarded by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association: Sarah McKillip, a business major with a 3.52 GPA, and Ashley Paiko, a biology major carrying a 3.70 GPA. Both student-athletes are juniors who rowed for the Aztec varsity eight boat in 2003-04.

A successful season has ended and Zebroski and the Aztecs, with the aid of quality returnees and an excellent recruiting class, now look forward to continuing their push up and into the elite level of women's rowing.