Clemson’s rowing team went to great lengths over the past few weeks to compete in this past weekend’s SoCal Challenge invitational.
“It was a compliment to our program to be invited to race the best in rowing. It showed us that we are an elite team, someone to compete with,” Head Coach Richard Ruggierri said.
Coach Ruggierri thought it was also a fantastic opportunity for the Tigers to show off their immensely-developed talent. The team went 8-2 overall, winning the most races of the four teams in attendance.
The team took great measures in order to be able to compete in this event. Traveling for a relatively young team like Clemson’s is always an undertaking. For this event, the team had to go to greater lengths to make it. The week before the races were to take place, the Tigers competed at Virginia, and directly after they had to drive to Kentucky to drop off their equipment with Notre Dame’s boathouse manager.
The team left early Thursday on April 8 in order to get in two practices before the big races.
As if that wasn’t not enough work, the Tigers made sure they competed as hard in the classroom as they did in the races. The team took a red-eye flight to get back in time to prepare for early Monday morning practice and classes.
“As a coach, it is exciting to be part of an event where all four teams are ranked in the top 20,” Ruggierri said. “Great company to keep and perform with.”
The event itself was a special, invitation-only race consisting of two west coast region teams and two teams outside of that region.
Southern Cal and UCLA personally invited Notre Dame and Clemson University to compete in a special one-day competition. Southern Cal is currently ranked 8th in the country with Clemson in a close 12th place.
UCLA and Notre Dame follow the two competitors in 15th and 17th place, respectively.
Most teams do not get opportunities like this. Events like this are usually only open to those who the host teams see as good, respectable competition.
As a possible selection for the NCAA tournament for the third year in a row, this invitation boosted Clemson’s potential for a high ranking. This gave Clemson extra competition for the upcoming ACC Championship as well.
Along with the actual invitation, Ruggierri was extremely proud of how his team competed this weekend. According to Ruggierri, the focus of this weekend was to compete at their best and take as many wins as possible.
“We needed to show more and race closer to our full potential. I believe we did that in a good deal of races,” Ruggierri said.
The west coast teams kept the Tigers busy on Saturday. Clemson went up against UCLA while USC took on Notre Dame that morning. Clemson won four out of the five races. In the evening, Clemson competed against USC while UCLA matched up against Notre Dame. Clemson once again took four more of the races.
The regatta took place in Mission Bay, where UCLA had a chance to take home water advantage but Clemson did not let that stop them from coming out on top.
After showing up and showing out at such a competition, the rowing team got a lot out of their hectic weekend.
“Every day, every opportunity is important to us,” Ruggierri said.
This type of competition has set the team up with the competitive edge for their upcoming competitions. Clemson will take back to the water in the fight for the ACC title that will take place April 24th across the waters of Lake Hartwell.
With home field advantage on their side, hopefully the Tigers see a chance to take that title for themselves again.
