WIRA CHAMPIONSHIP

The #4 Stanford Lightweight Women were in Sacramento this weekend for the WIRA championships and entered all Openweight events. They swept all of their heats in the 1V8, 2V8 and 2x events against a mix of club and varsity level teams. The good aspect of this event is that at least one or two Openweight teams might provide them some good competition and preparation for our Lightweights for IRAs. In this case, University of San Diego has fit that bill, with their Openweight boats showing a similar speed as the Stanford Lightweights, even beating them earlier at the San Diego Crew Classic.

The heats set up a showdown in the finals, and the Stanford 1V8 reached 1st place in a barnburner against USD, with only a 0.9 second margin of victory. The 1V4 also placed first, beating UCSD by a little less than 5 seconds. And, the 2x actually placed second to USD by a little less than 9 seconds (smaller boat classes tend to have larger margins). Given the scant parity of competition on the West Coast within the Lightweight class, USD might be nice blossoming rivalry - valuable for IRA prep each year.

You can read the goStanford recap here.