• VIDEO: Kaitlin  Dickinson

SATURDAY, MAY 6
Windermere Cup
Montlake Cut / Seattle, Wash. / 10:20 a.m.

• Live Video -- http://pac-12.com/womens-rowing/event/2017/05/06/windermere-cupopening-day
• Live Results -- https://herenow.com/results/#/races/20323/home
• Parking Information -- http://windermerecup.withwre.com/directions-parking/
 
SEATTLE -- Seattle Pacific will make a rare appearance this weekend at the Windermere Cup Regatta, the unique rowing event that begins the Opening Day festivities for the start of boating season in the Northwest. One SPU crew, the varsity eight women, will compete as part of the 21-race schedule that starts at 10:20 a.m. on Saturday, May 6.
 
Thousands of spectators line the entire length of the 2,000-meter Montlake Cut course, in boats and on shore. The annual regatta, hosted by the University of Washington, is in its 31st year under title sponsor Windermere Real Estate.
 
The featured events are the men's and women's eight-oared races that put host Washington against the Shanghai High-Performance Rowing teams from China.
 
The Falcons last competed at the Windermere Cup in 2011, featuring a women's varsity eight that posted a third-place time of 7:21.3 in the Erickson Cascade Cup behind the Washington second varsity (6:51.4) and Western Washington (6:58.1).
 
This year's Falcons varsity eight features six novice rowers in their first year of collegiate competition. The trio of returning competitors include senior coxswain Paige Ortiz, junior Natalie Beall and senior Emily Monday.


 
COACH ANDREW DERRICK ON THE WINDERMERE CUP
"There's nothing like it in rowing, it's such a spectacle. It's NASCAR meets rowing. It's great racing, but it's also a great exercise in keeping focused despite everything else going on. There are going to be 70,000 people there. It's a very unique experience and I'm really glad that we get to take part in it.
 
"The last 600 meters is pretty deafening, especially for some of those well-attended Windermere Cups in the nice weather. They've got to be prepared for it. There are lots of mishaps that happen in the last 600 meters. As long as our rowers are prepared and focused and keeping their head in the boat, they'll be fine.
 
"We have it a lot better than most places, rowing here in Seattle. We can go down the course and we're a lot more visible to the public than most places that are kind of buried off in some state park somewhere. We're a little more used to rowing in a highly populated area, but very few things get you ready for this kind of crowd."
 
THE MONTLAKE CUT COURSE
The starting line is on Lake Washington, parallel to the Evergreen Point floating bridge. The course runs from east to west through the Montlake Cut to the finish line at the mouth of Portage Bay, near Lake Union.
 
WHERE TO WATCH
Spectators are encouraged to view the Windermere Cup races from the shores of the Montlake Cut. This is a free community event with paid parking available at surrounding University of Washington lots. Please note that the Montlake Bridge will be closed to traffic from 9:20 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The races begin at 10:20 a.m. and are followed by the boat parade. The Montlake Bridge will be raised and remain open during the boat parade.
 
FALCON FAST FACTS
First-year SPU coach Andrew Derrick returns to his alma mater on Saturday. He rowed four years in the Windermere Cup as an oarsman at Washington … The Falcons varsity eight crew won its inaugural race under Derrick, posting a 10-second victory over Pacific Lutheran on March 11 … This is the 40th season of intercollegiate women's rowing competition at Seattle Pacific … This season's roster is comprised of 25 student-athletes, forming the largest women's rowing team at SPU since 1998 … Of those 25, just six are returnees: coxswain Paige Ortiz, Natalie Beall, Lindsey Heller, Abby Kopack, Emily Monday and Moriah Sisk … Most of the 19 remaining Falcons are true novices who had no rowing experience prior to joining the SPU squad … The Falcons hail from eight different states with 12 of them calling Washington their home. California is next with six, two are from Oregon and one student-athlete comes from the states of Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota and New Mexico.

 

MEET THE COACH
Former University of Washington standout Andrew Derrick is in his first year as the women's rowing coach at Seattle Pacific. He assumed the helm of the program in October, returning to Seattle where he was a four-year UW letterman and helped the freshman crew to the 2001 national championship. Derrick rowed in the bow seat for the Huskies' national runner-up varsity eight boats in 2003 and 2004.
 
A 2004 graduate with a bachelor's degree in history, Derrick remained at UW to earn his master's in intercollegiate athletic leadership in 2008. He was named a to the All-Pac-10 Team as well as earning all-conference academic honors three years in a row.
 
Derrick, 34, comes to SPU after a five-year stint as the head coach at Central Oklahoma. The former UCO assistant was promoted to head coach in 2011 and directed the team to the NCAA Championship Regatta in each of his five seasons. The Bronchos were national team runners-up in 2016 after placing third in 2015. Their varsity eight and varsity four crews each won silver medals at the 2016 NCAA championships in June.
 
LAST REGATTA
WIRA Championships
The Falcons varsity eight crew raced to a second-place finish early Sunday morning (April 30) 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. 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.
 
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 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).
 
 
WINDERMERE CUP
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Montlake Cut / Seattle, Wash.
(2,000-meter course)
 
10:54 a.m. -- Women's Collegiate Open Eight (SPU varsity)
Lane 1:  Washington
Lane 2:  Pacific Lutheran
Lane 3:  Seattle Pacific
Lane 4:  Seattle University
 
SPU Varsity Eight Lineup
cox – Paige Ortiz (Sr./Huntington Beach, CA/Huntington Beach HS)
stroke – Chloe Remley (Fr./San Diego, CA/High Tech HS)
7 – Amanda Larsen (Fr./Eugene, OR/Willamette HS)
6 – Briana Inman (Fr./Novato, CA/Novato HS)
5 – Kaitlin Dickinson (Fr./Monroe, WA/Monroe HS)
4 – Natalie Beall (Jr./Wenatchee, WA/Wenatchee HS)
3 – Gracie Hoidal (So./Everett, WA/Cascade HS)
2 – Emily Monday (Sr./Chester, CA/Chester HS)
bow – Hannah Hutchinson (Fr./Minneapolis, MN/Great River HS)