Keelhaulers Win Rowing Championship

Keelhaulers Win Rowing Championship

The men's varsity pair won the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) championship April 29-30 at Lake Natoma, capping off a solid season for the Cal Maritime crew team. The duo of Ben Yuse and Adam Bingham beat out eleven other West Coast colleges and universities in their quest for the gold with strong races in both the heats and the finals. The pair has no coxswain to help with steering, so rowers have to focus that much more on their technique, timing, and power to keep the boat running smooth and straight. While they trained in the pair off and on through the fall and early spring, Yuse and Bingham (both residents of the Seattle area) spent the final month prior to the regatta fine-tuning their technique in the boat. Their pair had the fastest time coming out of the heats on Saturday, even in the breezy conditions. In the finals, among the seven-boat field, the Keelhaulers surged to the lead about 500 meters into the 2000-meter race and pulled away from the rest of the boats to win in a time of 7:01.579, eleven seconds ahead of second place.

Heat 1 – Men's 2-

Loyola Marymount 7:08.379

Chapman 7:23.445

UC Berkeley Ltw 7:29.835

UC Irvine 7:43.600

Washington State 7:53.396

Sonoma State 8:01.195

Heat 2 – Men's 2-

Cal Maritime 7:03.948

Lewis & Clark 7:14.812

UC Santa Barbara 7:18.122

UCLA 7:18.141

Portland State 8:04.244

Arizona State 8:21.132

Grand Finals – Men's 2-

Cal Maritime 7:01.579

Lewis & Clark 7:12.749

Loyola Marymount 7:16.693

UC Santa Barbara 7:19.659

UCLA 7:24.370

Chapman 7:25.467

UC Berkeley Ltw 7:29.571