Who Are We?

UCD Women’s Rowing is a successful club program that competes in Northern California against some of the best club and varsity teams in the country. The club program is open to all UC Davis students who are interested in trying the sport. Many of our rowers had never touched an oar before joining the team. The program has a history of taking inexperienced athletes and turning them into competitive athletes.

Our Season

The team trains throughout the school year, from September to June. UC Davis competes in a few head races, 5 kilometer races, in the fall (e.g. Head of the Port, Head of the American, Head of the Lagoon). From early March to late May, the team competes in sprint races, 2 kilometer races. UCD regularly races against: OCC, St. Mary’s College, Sacramento State, UC Santa Barbara, and Mills College in scrimmages or regattas such as the San Diego Crew Classic and the Covered Bridge Regatta in Oregon. The team competes every year at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) Championships in Sacramento, CA at the end of April. The season typically finishes off at the end of May, competing at the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) National Championship Regatta.

Facilities

The team rows in the deep water channel (a.k.a. Lake Washington) out of the Port of Sacramento. The Curt Rocca boathouse facility houses two spacious boat bays. Lake Washington offers a 2000 meter, four lane racecourse, as well as unlimited miles of rowable water further downstream. The program is minimally subsidized by the Campus Recreation Department under the direction of UC Davis Sport Clubs. However, most of the financial support comes from dues, alumni, parents and friends, which help maintain the rowing facility, equipment, and coaching staff.

History

Founded in 1977, the University of California, Davis Women's Rowing Team was established under the guidance of Rich Sundquist, a former oarsman from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1980 the crew received its first racing shell, a wooden sweep eight, which was cut in half and driven from the East Coast on top of a van. The team initially rowed out of a small wooden boathouse with a dirt floor, which is now home to River City Rowing. Built in late 1993, the 4,000 square-foot Curt Rocca Boathouse boathouse was largely made possible from the fundraising efforts of former Cal rower Curt Rocca, team members, alumni donations, and the University. The boathouse is still used today, shared with the UC Davis Men's rowing team and located in the Port of Sacramento.

Based on the team's success and support, UC Davis added rowing as a varsity sport in 1996, and the team competed in its first NCAA Championships in Spring of 1997, finishing as the fastest Division II team. UC Davis went on to win NCAA National Championships in 2002 and 2003 as well. At the time, UC Davis was a NCAA Division II school; however, in 2003, the university began a 4 year transition to become NCAA Division I program. The team competed as a Division I varsity team until 2010, when the university needed to reduce budgets and the women's rowing team was one of four varsity teams moved back to club status due to the cuts. In 2018, the UC Davis looked to reinstate two women's varsity teams and women's rowing was in consideration; however ultimately the university elected to add equestrian and beach volleyball. Today the team operates as a club sport and the program continues teaching young women about rowing, teamwork, responsibility, commitment, competition, and success.

In 2022, an Endowment Fund was established through the University with $50,000 in seed money from alumni and supporters to help fund the team. The endowment is invested and professionally managed as part of UC Davis' overall university endowment. The team will receive a 4% payout from the endowment’s invested principle, in perpetuity. The vision is, in the future, that the team's operating budget will be significantly supported via the endowment annual payout.