• 2017 WIRA Championships results    |    • VIDEO: Varsity 8 race segment

GOLD RIVER, Calif. – Double-duty for a quartet of Seattle Pacific women's rowers resulted in a pair of runner-up results.
 
The Falcons varsity eight crew raced to a second-place finish early Sunday morning and half of them returned at noon to register a silver-medal performance in the novice four grand final at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) Championships on Lake Natoma.
 
SPU's top boat overcame a sluggish start and overtook nearly the entire varsity eight field en route to a speedy second-place time of 6-minutes, 50.35-seconds.
 
 "When we came off the line we were fifth, almost sixth," first-year SPU coach Andrew Derrick described. "They just did a great job of walking through a lot of people and passed Puget Sound with 500 meters to go. They did a great job with the body of the piece."
 
UC Davis had a winning time of 6:45.77 to finish with a sliver of open water ahead of SPU. Puget Sound was third (6:52.92), five seats back of the Falcons, followed by Orange Coast (6:55.74), UC Irvine (7:03.27) and Mills (7:03.80).
 
The Falcons varsity eight boat crossed the finish line in under seven minutes for the first time this season. That improved upon the time of 7:02.53 in Saturday's third-place heat showing.


 
Breaching the seven-minute barrier was a notable achievement for SPU, even allowing for favorable conditions that aided their effort.
 
"It's encouraging for them. The course was very clearly fast with a lot of flow going over," Derrick said of the sub-seven clocking. ""But, you have to do it in a tailwind or with big current before you're ever going to be able to do it on a perfectly flat, fair course. Putting down a fast time, no matter what, is always a good thing to do.
 
"Margins tell the more accurate story and I'm really proud of them for that. The fact that we managed to get in front of Puget Sound again when they knew what to expect out of us is great. There are still large margins between us and the top Division II crews in the West, but with a year to go we can certainly chop those down. There's lots of data points that we can look at and they are all really encouraging."
 
SPU's varsity eight is comprised of six competitors in their first year of collegiate rowing, including freshman coxswain Jacqueline Kemp. The three returnee are Natalie Beall, Abby Kopack and Emily Monday.
 
Four of the first-year rowers, along with freshman coxswain Jacqueline Kemp, exchanged their eight-oared boat for a smaller shell and competed in the novice four grand final less than four hours later.
 
Rowers Chloe Remley, Amanda Larsen, Briana Inman and Kaitlin Dickinson powered the four-oared crew to an impressive open-water victory in Saturday's heat race. On Sunday they covered the 2,000-meter course in 7:32.01 to finish three seats back of Western Washington.
 
The Vikings winning time was 7:30.99. Loyola Marymount placed third (7:42.08), Oregon fourth (7:52.61), Stanford fifth (7:56.63) and Seattle University sixth (8:10.80).
 
"In the novice four we led right from the get-go, but Western just crept into us and passed us with 100 meters to go," said Derrick.

 

In Saturday's action, SPU's second varsity eight won the petite final in 8:03.84 after placing fourth in its morning heat (7:54.26). The varsity four was fifth in both the heat (8:11.26) and the third final (8:32.06).
 
"We really want to build on this next year," Derrick projected. "We will keep the athletes we have, get a new crop and have the varsity athletes teach them how to row, how to carry themselves and how to row boats well.
 
"Then we need to start finding some depth because obviously we were significantly less competitive in some of the lower boats."
 
The Falcons conclude the 2017 season on Saturday in the Windermere Cup. Racing begins at 10:20 a.m. on the Montlake Cut in Seattle and the SPU varsity eight is slated to compete at 10:59 a.m. alongside host Washington, Seattle University and Pacific Lutheran.
 
 
NCAA ROWING
WIRA Championships
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Lake Natoma / Gold River, Calif.
(2,000 meters, only events with SPU entry listed)
 
WOMEN'S RESULTS
 
Varsity Eight
Grand Final -- 1, Western Washington, 6:23.83; 2, UC Santa Barbara, 6:29.99; 3, Humboldt State, 6:31.87; 4, Pacific Lutheran, 6:33.16; 5, UC San Diego, 6:37.81; 6, Lewis & Clark, 6:40.01.
 
Petite Final -- 1, UC Davis, 6:45.77; 2, Seattle Pacific, 6:50.35; 3, Puget Sound, 6:52.92; 4, Orange Coast, 6:55.74; 5, UC Irvine, 7:03.27; 6, Mills, 7:03.80.
 
Third Final -- 1, Arizona State, 7:18.30; 2, Pacific, 7:30.55; 3, Sonoma State, 7:36.89.
 
      SPU varsity eight lineup:  cox–Jacqueline Kemp, stroke-Chloe Remley, 7-Amanda Larsen, 6-Briana Inman, 5-Kaitlin Dickinson, 4-Natalie Beall, 3-Abby Kopack, 2-Emily Monday, bow-Hannah Hutchinson.
 
 
Novice Four
Grand Final -- 1, Western Washington, 7:30.99; 2, Seattle Pacific, 7:32.01; 3, Loyola Marymount, 7:42.08; 4, Oregon, 7:52.61; 5, Stanford, 7:56.63; 6, Seattle University, 8:10.80.
 
      SPU novice four lineup:  cox–Jacqueline Kemp, stroke-Chloe Remley, 3-Amanda Larsen, 2-Briana Inman, bow-Kaitlin Dickinson.