"When we started our sculling program four years ago, everyone said, 'Who are you going to race?' " said OCU women's coach Melanie Borger. "But each year there are more and more programs, and now this year it's been added to the Dad Vail. Maybe it wasn't us, but we'd like to think we're a part of it."
The champions were Kathryn Schiro, a junior kinesiology major, and Edgars Boitmanis, a sophomore from Latvia who chose Oklahoma City so he could keep alive his Olympic dream in that event.
"In the U.S., we focus on sweep boats, but our reputation in sculling is changing," said Schiro. "We're still underdogs in sculling events, and it's important we really make a stand. I'm so glad we're evolving our rowing as a nation. That's how you get faster, by having more people in the event."
Boitmanis, who is in the mix for the Latvian national team that races next summer in the London Olympics, was drawn to sculling because it is very popular in his country and it suits his personality.
"Sculling is more individualistic. You are on your own," he said. "You can see who's best and it's very objective. That's what I like."
The single scull discipline - once the marquee event in rowing - has not been a recent priority of U.S. Rowing, the national governing body for the sport. That's not for any wrong reason, but because the best athletes were encouraged to become part of the team events, particularly the four-man and eight-man sweep boats.
Elsewhere in the rowing world, the single has remained popular and the United States has not fared well in international competition.
Ken Jurkowski, the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials champion, who finished second in the Challenge Cup race on Saturday, is the most distinguished current U.S. single sculler, and he finished 11th at the Beijing Olympics.
