OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Due to severe weather expected in the Oklahoma City area this weekend, the American Athletic Conference 2019 Women's Rowing Championship, hosted by the AAC and University of Tulsa, has been moved up to Friday, May 17, from its originally scheduled date of Sunday, May 19. With an early-morning wind and weather delay, the Aztecs are now planned to take on their conference foes beginning at 9:45 a.m. CT at the US Rowing High Performance Center.
San Diego State is set to compete against six of its seven AAC adversaries, including crews from Central Florida, University of Connecticut, Old Dominion, Southern Methodist, Temple University and host Tulsa. Due to the event schedule change, Sacramento State will not make it to the championship.
With the shifted scheduling of the event, the teams will be competing in final-only events, which are scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. CT with the varsity eight. The second varsity eight crews are set to get on the water at 10:15 a.m., followed by the varsity four at 10:45 a.m. and the second varsity four, which is set for an 11:15 a.m. start. The Aztecs will not enter a boat in the 11:25 a.m. third varsity eight race, but will wrap up competition with the third varsity four at 11:35 a.m.
Placement in each individual race of the championship will determine points distributed for the overall team placements. Automatic qualification for NCAAs will be determined by the team with the most points in the three NCAA events: the V8, 2V8 and V4. New this season, the 2V4, 3V8 and 3V4 will not be scored for points, leaving just the three NCAA events counting towards the team point totals. The awards ceremony is slated to begin at 12:30 p.m.
At last season's championship, SDSU recorded a first-place finish in the 3V4 event, finished fourth in the 2V4, fifth in the varsity eight, sixth in the 2V8 and seventh in the V4 to compile a team point total of 95 and earn sixth place as a squad in the AAC.
The Scarlet and Black have seen solid performances from each of its crews as of late, most recently competing at the WIRA Championships at the end of April. The Aztecs took home three gold medals and a bronze at the event, placing first in the varsity four, second varsity four and second varsity eight finals, and third in the varsity eight.
The V4's gold-medal finish at the WIRA Championships earned the crew the title of AAC Boat of the Week, while WIRA members voted head coach Bill Zack the WIRA Coach of the Year, and dubbed four Aztecs all-WIRA honorees as sophomore Hannah Broadland and Helen Bauer earned first-team selections, and junior Alana Grollo and senior Brooke Hepner received second-team nods.
The Aztecs also had great performances at the Hornet Invitational, where they completed the weekend with nine first-place finishes across 12 races, including a sweep of conference foe Sacramento State, and swept UCSD in head-to-head competition in Chula Vista in mid-April.
Due to the scheduling changes, a live stream of the AAC Championship will not be available during Friday's event. Any future updates regarding live scoring will be linked on the rowing schedule page at GoAztecs.com, and a full recap of Friday's events and times will be available on the website following the conclusion of racing.
AAC Rowing Championship moved up to Friday morning
