April 2, 2006

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - After winning its trial heat Saturday, the Navy women's crew team saw its varsity boat place fifth in the grand final of the Cal Cup at the San Diego Crew Classic Sunday morning on San Diego's Mission Bay.

Miami won the race in a time of 7:05.30, with Navy finishing nine seconds back in a time of 7:14.68.

The Mids started the final strong, standing in third place after the opening 500 meters and trailing Miami by just 1.5 seconds.

Navy's second 500 meters was not as strong, however, as the Mids dropped to fourth place with a time of 3:35.41. Miami still held the lead at the midpoint in the race with an overall time of 3:29.70, while St. Joseph's took over second place at 3:31.00 and Kansas State stood in third at 3:33.06.

"It was an excellent first 500 for us," said Navy head coach Mike Hughes. "We didn't carry that over into second 500, though. We were still within touch with everyone, but we had the opportunity to be in a better position."

The Mids fell a little further back into fifth place at the 1500-meter mark with a time of 5:27.35, dropping the Mids behind third-place Kansas State (5:25.06) and fourth-place Sacramento State (5:26.40).

The Mids were unable to improve their standing over the final 500 meters.

"It was a good third 500 meters for us in that we were within striking distance of several of the boats ahead of us," said Hughes. "With a little better sprint at the end we could have finished as high as third in the race.

"We had a great row Saturday which allowed us to accomplish one of our main goals for the trip and that was to advance to the grand final. Today's row was not what we would have liked, but it was another learning experience for us as we look ahead towards the quickly approaching championship portion of our season. One of the things I really like about this team is that they are all about improving themselves and I confident they will take the lessons learned today and apply them to our upcoming races."

The entire Navy team will be back in action Saturday when the Mids take part in the Carolina Invitational in Raleigh, N.C.

Grand Final of the Cal Cup at the San Diego Crew Classic (Mission Bay) 1. Miami, 7:05.30 2. Kansas State, 7:08.58 3. St. Joseph's, 7:10.87 4. Sacramento State, 7:12.12 5. Navy, 7:14.68 6. UC Davis, 7:17.61