Strokes win second at San Diego

Piedmont High Seniors King, Watson and Gault Prove Strong

By: Piedmont Post

Powered by Piedmont High School seniors Mike King, Doug Watson and Scott Gault, the Oakland Strokes Men's Varsity 8 won its heat at the San Diego Crew Classic the weekend of April 7, then battled neck and neck for 2,000 meters with Marin Rowing in the Grand Finals to finish second in 6-minutes, 40.2 seconds. Marin won in 6:36.8.

In the finals ­ the seven fastest boats in the meet, the Strokes placed ahead of Victoria City Rowing from Canada (3rd, 6:41.33), Berkeley High (4th, 6:46.67), Oregon Rowing Unlimited from Portland (5th, 6:49.75), a shell from Abingdon School in England (6th, 6:51.84), and St. Ignatius from San Francisco, the state champion four years ago (7th, 6:59.80).

Trailing rival Marin in races this season, the Strokes Varsity 8 showed great improvement, challenging the lads from Larkspur Landing from the start in Sunday's Grand Finals. The four-second difference demonstrated that the Strokes may be ready to challenge for the state championship the weekend of May 19 at the U.S. Rowing Southwest Regional Junior Championships a Lake Natoma outside Sacramento.

In their heat race on Saturday, the Strokes powered to victory on the 2,000 meter course at Mission Bay, winning in 6:23.10, four seconds ahead of Berkeley. In comparison, the following day in the finals, the Strokes beat Berkeley by nearly two boat lengths.

Finishing well back were St. Ignatius (3rd, 6:33.47), Pacific Rowing Club of San Francisco (4th, 6:35.45), Serra/Notre Dame/Mercy (5th, 6:37.07), and River City Rowing of Sacramento.

Men's and women's crews from Oakland Strokes competed last weekend against Capital Crew, Green Lake (Seattle) and Marin Rowing at Lake Natoma. All varsity and novice boats will compete this weekend a Lake Merced in San Francisco in races with Pacific Rowing and Capital Crew.