PORTLAND, Ore. – Seattle Pacific's varsity four boat, which decisively won its season-opening race, received the inaugural women's rowing Crew of the Week award on Monday from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
SPU's top four-oared crew faced a rare early-season matchup with rival Western Washington at Saturday's PLU Invitational on American Lake in Lakewood, Wash.
 
The Falcons completed the 2,000-meter course in 7-minutes, 39.52-seconds with generous amounts of open water ahead of second-place WWU. The Vikings' second-place time was 8:12.6 and Puget Sound was a distant third in 8:54.9.
 
The Falcons four is directed by sophomore coxswain LeeAnn Arrington and comprised of returning rowers Amanda Larsen, Suzanne Stafford, Tamyra Clark-Hoogstrate and Danielle Johnson. None of them were members of the varsity four at last year's national championships.
 
"That's probably our most experienced boat, all things considered. It's really our only boat that doesn't have a novice in it right now," Derrick said.
 
"Those athletes just did a great job, the coxswain did a great job, showing up and being aggressive all the way through. That margin won't necessarily hold true for the rest of the season as we know that Western does a great job of speeding up through the course of the season."

VIDEO: TAMYRA  CLARK-HOOGSTRATE
The varsity four headlined a sweep of all seven races for the SPU rowing team. Falcons crews were also victorious in the open four and second varsity eight events along with two wins apiece from the varsity eight and third varsity eight crews.
 
The GNAC began sponsoring women's rowing this year and the conference includes five rowing teams, all of them ranked among the top-seven nationally. Central Oklahoma is currently ranked No. 1, Western Washington is No. 3, Seattle Pacific No. 4, UC San Diego No. 5 and Humboldt State No. 7. Only second-ranked Florida Tech and No. 7 Jefferson prevented a GNAC monopoly of the top-five spots in the coaches poll.
 
SPU hosts its only home competition of the season on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. The Falcon Regatta field includes three of the top-four finishers from last year's NCAA championships.
 
SPU, which placed fourth at the 2019 NCAA regatta, entertains defending national champion Central Oklahoma and third-place Western Washington. Four races will be conducted on the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
 
The starting line is near Gas Works Park in Lake Union and the finish line is behind Brougham Pavilion on the north side of the SPU campus.
 
"We're really looking forward to hosting UCO and Western Washington and know that the competition is going to be extremely fierce," Derrick said.