Jan. 17, 2000

San Diego -

The San Diego State women's crew team began the spring season on a high note. The Aztec crew team recorded numerous first place finishes at the San Diego Indoor Rowing Classic held this past Sunday at the San Diego Rowing Club in Mission Beach.

San Diego State competed against some of the nation's top level rowing programs, including Colorado, San Diego, UC Irvine and UCSD.

Kristina Karlsson placed first for SDSU in the novice women's category, followed closely by freshman Alicia Stuebner. Regina Capriotti, a junior-college transfer from Orange Coast College, won the collegiate women's event.

Meanwhile senior Sara Russell, took the honors in the lightweight women's event. The Point Loma High School graduate missed qualifying for the World Indoor Rowing Classic by 10 seconds. The World Indoor Rowing Classic is an international indoor rowing competition held annually in Boston, which brings together thousands of competitive rowers for a two-day event.

The San Diego Indoor Classic is also an annual event. This type of indoor rowing event consists of rowing machines called "ergometers" which are connected to computers that display the status of an actual race. This display gives the individual athlete rowing an animation of boats moving down a racecourse, similar to a race on water.