Stanford’s openweight and lightweight women’s rowing teams kicked off their fall seasons at the San Diego Fall Classic over the weekend, with 49 Cardinal athletes competing against crews from UCLA, UC San Diego and San Diego.

The openweight team sent three eights to race in the 4.5k course on Mission Bay. All three eights placed top four, with only UCLA’s A boat sneaking its way into second place.

The first boat, which was composed of sophomore coxswain Nava Ruthfield, sophomores Emily Bagrie, Yaara Ronen, Lia Nathan and Emily Tierney, juniors Carly Brown and Sara Marriott and seniors Matilda Drewett and Sofia Simone, crossed the line in a time of 15:07.045. UCLA’s boat followed with 15:17.327. The other two Cardinal boats finished close behind with times of 15:22.890 and 15:31.765. 

The lightweight team also returned to the Farm with some hardware. The four won the open category in a time of 20:09.338, beating the next boat to finish by 33.672 seconds. 

In the open event, the team had two eights compete against their fellow Cardinal. The first eight to finish included freshman coxswain Anna Heflin, freshmen Fiona Carney Skytt and Maddie Ford, sophomores Mia Padovano and Maddie Wu, junior Campbell McClellan and seniors Lauren Koester, Grace Padula and Elle Rosenfeld, in a time of 16:10.975 to secure seventh place. The other eight crossed the line in ninth place at 16:34.682. 

The Cardinal achieved great success in their first and last race of the fall. The openweight team will cap off their fall season this Saturday, Nov. 14, against Cal at the “Little” Big Row. Both teams will look to continue this momentum into their spring campaign, which starts with a faceoff against Saint Mary’s in Redwood City on Mar. 13.