The 2025 San Diego Fall Classic is shaping up to be a great day with temperatures projected to be in the low 70s and the wind gusts maxing out at 8mph. There are two main storylines to keep an eye on: the UCLA women making their first appearance and the Stanford women’s dominance.
The Bruin women are making their first appearance at the regatta in at least 25 years
Going back to the 2000-2001 schedule (the earliest available online), there is no documentation of the UCLA women having ever raced Mission Bay in the Fall. Over the past 25 years, the Bruins’ head racing schedule has predominantly featured two now-defunct events: the Newport Fall Rowing Festival and the Head of the Marina. Once those went the way of wooden boats, Head of the American on Lake Natoma filled the spot on their schedule, but the UCLA women haven’t done much Fall racing at all as of late.
Since COVID, the Bruins have one appearance at Head of the American, and that’s it for their Fall schedule, and so… With a new coaching staff in town, it seems like the perfect time for them to make an appearance at the San Diego Fall Classic, because…
What better way to figure out exactly where your crews are than to face off with Stanford?
Stanford Women Project to Dominate
The start list for this race is likely nothing that concerns the Cardinal. You’ve got San Diego State, UCLA, UC San Diego, and the University of San Diego, so for the Cardinal, it’s all about beating themselves and their lower boats trying to beat their higher boats.
The Cardinal has five boats entered into this race, so plenty of room for internal chaos to reign. Last year, their ‘C’ boat suffered a critical occurrence and finished all the way down in sixth, and so those ladies will no doubt be looking for revenge, in whichever boats they’ve moved to. It could mean an excellent opportunity for the ‘B’ boat to beat the ‘A’ boat based on spite alone.
Last year, the margins were nine seconds between the A and B, but only five seconds between the B and D, which says that the C boat… Could have likely upset the B boat, and maybe that’s what went wrong? Got a little bit too aggressive? We love aggressive racing, and one of our “signature” calls to make in practice has always been “It’s great to beat rivals, but it’s even better to beat teammates,” and we’ll see what happens.
Projections
We expect a lot of clustering within teams – almost all the crews in this race will have a chance to beat their own teammates. In addition to Stanford entering five boats, UCLA has entered four, UCSD has entered three, and USD has also entered three. The only team that has a mere one boat in the race is SDSU, so the Aztecs will be gunning for everyone, while, historically speaking, everyone else will be gunning for friendly fire.
As mentioned… Stanford went 1-2-3, A-B-D last year; USD took both fourth and fifth; UCSD took seventh to ninth, and then UC Irvine (not entered this year) continued that trend, finishing in 16th and 17th.
It should be a great day on the water; we’re excited to see where UCLA falls in the melee, and good luck to all crews.
