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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3
Head of the Lake Regatta
Montlake Cut / Seattle, Wash. / 8:00 a.m.
        Results – https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results.jsp?job_id=6566&org_id=0
        Head of the Lake website -- https://www.headofthelake.org/
 
SEATTLE – The highlight of the fall rowing season takes place on Sunday for the Seattle Pacific women's rowing team.
 
Three eight-oared crews with their white blades decorated with maroon Falcons logos will race November 3 in the Head of the Lake Regatta. The 40th-annual event, featuring 477 boats in 42 different categories, begins at 8 a.m.
 
Races start in Lake Union, northeast of Gasworks Park, and progress east through Portage Bay and the Montlake Cut.
 
THE FIELD
The women's championship eight race, sponsored by Pocock Racing Shells, starts at 8:08 a.m. That event features a seven-boat field that includes the SPU varsity eight. Also competing are Portland, Pacific Lutheran, Seattle University, UC Davis and two crews from host Washington.
 
The Falcons second varsity eight competes at 8:11 a.m. in a four-boat grouping. Joining SPU are a trio of NCAA Division I opponents; Washington, Portland and Washington State.
 
The third SPU crew moves to the starting line at 8:19 a.m. in the third varsity eight event. That competition incudes crews from British Columbia, Pacific Lutheran and Seattle University along with two entries from Western Washington.

ASSISTANT COACH MATT OCLANDER INTERVIEW

 WHAT IS HEAD RACING?
Instead of the traditional Olympic-style racing format, with boats lining up side-to-side on a 2,000-meter course, this is a head race covering a three-mile distance.
 
Head races are time trials, processional events that start with boats in a single-file line with a rolling start at intervals of 10 or 20 seconds. Passing is allowed and the order of finish is determined by each crews' elapsed time from start to finish.
 
Many members of the SPU third varsity crew are new to the sport of rowing so Sunday will not only be their first ever competition in a shell, but also their initial exposure to head racing.
 
THE COURSE
The three-mile course starts in Lake Union at the College Club boathouse with Seattle's iconic Space Needle in view. Rowers wind beneath the University Bridge into Portage Bay and through the Montlake Cut to Lake Washington where the course takes a sharp turn back toward Husky Stadium to the finish line 200 meters from the entrance to Conibear Shellhouse at the University of Washington.
 
THE TEAM
This season's Seattle Pacific roster is comprised of 36 student-athletes, forming the largest women's rowing team at SPU since 1998. The list is comprised of 22 returning student-athletes and 14 newcomers, who are termed "novices" in rowing vernacular. Many of them are true novices, who had no rowing experience prior to joining the SPU squad.
 
The Falcons hail from eight different states with 19 of them calling Washington home. California is represented by eight members of the roster and four are from Oregon.  Five states produced one SPU rower; Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
 
FALCON FAST FACTS
This is the 43rd season of intercollegiate women's rowing competition at Seattle Pacific … Returning coxswains will direct all three SPU entries. Junior Roxy Ruther will cox the varsity eight boat, sophomore LeeAnn Arrington the second varsity eight and junior Cecilia Krause the third varsity eight ... All eight rowers return from the Falcons varsity eight that placed fourth at the 2019 NCAA Regatta ... Falcons coach Andrew Derrick returns to his alma mater on Sunday. He rowed four years in the Windermere Cup as an oarsman at Washington and trained at the Conibear Shellhouse that serves at the finish area for the Head of the Lake Regatta. Derrick competed in the Head of the Lake event while with the Huskies … All nine members of Sunday's varsity eight crew competed in one of the three crews at last year's Head of the Lake regatta and six from the second varsity.
 
2018 HEAD OF THE LAKE RECAP
Seattle Pacific placed third in the featured women's race, trailing only two University of Washington crews, and shaved over four minutes off last year's time in an impressive performance at the 39th-annual Head of the Lake Regatta on Nov. 4, 2018.
 
Two other Falcons crews competed, in the Women's Collegiate Third Varsity Eight race. Their second varsity placed second, behind Washington State, and the SPU's No. 3 boat was fourth.
 
Three weeks after suffering a 42-second loss to Portland at the Oct. 14 American Lake Fall Classic in Lakewood, Wash., Seattle Pacific's top eight-oared boat turned the tables on that NCAA Division I crew.
 
The Division II Falcons streaked off the start of the Championship Women's Eight race and quickly erased the stagger over the University of Oregon crew that started 15 seconds ahead of them. SPU completed the three-mile course in 17-minutes, 53.39 seconds. Portland was less than two seconds back, in 17:55.27. Washington's leading women's crews finished one-two, clocking times of 16:21.92 and 16:37.29.
 
Equipment failure forced SPU's second varsity to race two hours later than scheduled, but the time-trial format allowed that result was able to be factored into their original event.
 
The No. 5 seat rigger snapped before the start, forcing the Falcons second crew to row back to their on-campus shellhouse two miles away. They retrieved a different boat and were issued a slot in another eight-oared competition.
 
WSU registered a winning time of 20:01.93 seconds in the third varsity event, just over 13 seconds superior to SPU. The Falcons second varsity, coxed by sophomore Cecilia Krause with five novice rowers and three veterans, was second in 20:15.20. They were well ahead of third-place finisher Portland, which had a time of 20:58.81.
 
SPU's third entry posted the fourth-best time in its event, a mark of 21:49.94. They trailed their teammates by 1:34 and third-place Portland by 51 seconds. The Falcons finished nearly one minute ahead of Puget Sound, which had a time of 22:43.38.

COACH DERRICK

Former University of Washington standout Andrew Derrick is in his fourth year as the women's rowing coach at Seattle Pacific. He assumed the helm of the program in October of 2016, 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.
 
Derrick has overseen the rapid rise of the SPU rowing program, culminating with an appearance at the NCAA Division II Championships last spring, the Falcons first since 2011. They placed fourth in the final team standings at the national regatta, getting four-place finishes from both the varsity eight and varsity four crews.
 
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, 37, came 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 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.
 
NEXT REGATTA
The Falcons rowers close out the fall portion of their schedule next Saturday, Nov. 9, with a scrimmage against Seattle University. Racing will take place in the morning on the Lake Washington Ship Canal that runs along the north edge of the SPU campus.
 
The primary collegiate rowing season is in the spring and the Falcons will announce that schedule when it is finalized.
 
HEAD OF THE LAKE REGATTA
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Montlake Cut / Seattle, Wash.
(3-mile course)
 
8:08 a.m.
Championship Women's Eight (Sponsored by Pocock Racing Shells)
Starting Order
1 – Washington "A"
2 – Washington "B"
3 – Seattle Pacific V8
4 – Portland
5 – Seattle University
6 – Pacific Lutheran
7 – UC Davis
 
SPU Varsity Eight lineup
cox – Roxy Ruther (Jr./Torrance, CA/homeschool)
stroke – Megan Chalfant (Jr./Roseville, CA/Woodcreek HS)
7 – Gillian Edgar (Sr./Seattle, WA/King's HS)
6 – Chloe Remley (Sr./San Diego, CA/High Tech HS)
5 – Shelby Janes (Sr./Stanwood, WA/Academy Northwest)
4 – Julienne Renne (Sr./Bellingham, WA/Woodinville HS)
3 – Suzanne Stafford (Jr./Clackamas, OR/Clackamas HS)
2 – Jennifer Hoag (So./Normandy Park, WA/Seattle Christian HS)
bow – Kaitlin Dickinson (Sr./Monroe, WA/Monroe HS)
 
 
8:11 a.m.
Women's Collegiate Second Varsity Eight
Starting Order
1 – Washington 3V
2 – Portland
3 – Washington State club
4 – Seattle Pacific 2V
 
SPU Second Varsity Eight Lineup
cox – LeeAnn Arrington (So./Empire, OK/Empire HS)
stroke – Amanda Larsen (Sr./Eugene, OR/Willamette HS)
7 – Samantha Kimmel (Jr./Woodinville, WA/Bellevue Christian HS)
6 – Brooklyn Liberato (Jr./Mount Vernon, WA/Mount Vernon HS)
5 – Tamyra Clark-Hoogstrate (Sr./Shoreline, WA/Shorewood HS)
4 – Anna White (Jr./Meridian, ID/Meridian Medical HS)
3 – Haley Thompson (Jr./Tacoma, WA/Science & Math Institute)
2 – Danielle Johnson (So./Mill Creek, WA/Jackson HS)
bow – Avalon Tarbet-Mendoza (So./Vancouver, WA/Columbia River)
 
 
8:19 a.m.
Women's Collegiate Third Varsity Eight
Starting Order
1 – Seattle Pacific 3V
2 – Western Washington "A"
3 – Pacific Lutheran
4 – Seattle University
5 – Western Washington "B"
6 – British Columbia
 
SPU Third Varsity Eight Lineup
cox – Cecilia Krause (Jr./Glastonbury, CT/Glastonbury HS)
stroke – Emma Chilcote (Fr./Okanogan, WA/Okanogan HS)
7 – Lydia Huizenga (Fr./Marin, CA/Redwood HS)
6 – Katy Beth Smith (Sr./Lynnwood, WA/Kamiak HS)
5 – Kalais Samuelson (Fr./Beaverton, OR/Sunset HS)
4 – Macie Leach (Fr./Chico, CA/Pleasant Valley HS)
3 – Rachel Hollenbeak (Fr./Battle Ground, WA/Prairie HS)
2 –Kendal Tillett (Fr./Spokane, WA/Rogers HS)
bow – Katie Honsinger (Fr./Everett, WA/homeschool)