| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Cal records fastest qualifying time at Crew Classic
Saturday April 05, 2003SAN DIEGO (AP) Defending national champion University of California, Berkeley recorded the fastest times Saturday in both the men's and women's qualifying for the premier collegiate races at the Crew Classic on Saturday.
The Cal men started the bid for their fifth consecutive championship in the Copley Cup with a five-second victory in their heat over Temple, which had the second fastest time of the day.
In the women's qualifying, the Bears edged defending champion Washington by less than a second in their quest to win the Jessop-Whittier Cup for the first time.
More than 3,000 rowers from 100 clubs and universities are competing in the two-day event on a 2,000-meter course on Mission Bay in what is regarded as the first major regatta of the collegiate season. Morning qualifying was conducted in calm conditions under partly sunny skies.
In its heat, the Cal men recorded a time of 6 minutes, 11.9 seconds. Temple posted a time of in 6:16.03. Also qualifying was Oregon State in 6:18.71.
The Cal Bears have won the national championship in each of the last three years,
Washington, which placed third in the nationals last season, won the other men's heat in 6:18.2, followed by Stanford with 6:19.22 and University of California, Davis in 6:35.42.
Absent from the men's field were longtime entrants Harvard, Penn and Yale, which did not attend for the second year in a row.
The Cal women finished in 6:54.6, just ahead of Washington in 6:54.85, with Washington State third in 7:01.51.
In the other heat, Stanford won in 6:56.9, followed by Southern California in 6:59.52 and Oregon State in 7:08.50.
Washington has won the women's championship in 10 of the past 11 years.
(