The Sacramento State men?s rowing team encountered rough waters at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships held last weekend at Lake Natoma.

In four of those races that Sac State competed in, including the novice-four and varsity-eight heats, the Hornets were unable to break into the top two, keeping themselves from advancing to the finals in those events.

The novice-four team turned in a disappointing fourth-place time of 7:25.1, almost 20 seconds behind the University of San Diego, which won the heat. Meanwhile, the varsity-eight time finished sixth in its heat with a time of 6:31.9, almost 19 seconds behind the heat winner, Orange Coast College.

The lightweight-four team finished fourth with a time of 7:13.4, and the novice-four petite team finished sixth, with a time of 7.43.3. A petite event is one in which competitors vie for seventh through twelfth place.

The three events in which Sac State did advance were the pair, the varsity-four and the lightweight-four petite. Sac State finished first in all three heats.

On Sunday, two of the three advancing teams earned top three finishes. The pair team took third with a time of 7:33.4 and the varsity-four team was second with a time of 6:46.8. The lightweight-four petite team finished fifth with a time of 6:42.5.

Still, Hornet coach Sam Sweitzer was not satisfied. Sac State did not perform poorly, but Sweitzer said it did not perform the way it should have.

“We didn?t step up to the challenge of a championship event,” Sweitzer said. “We performed basically the same way we have been all spring. In a championship event, there are a lot of good schools. You have to be able to step up to the next level.”

Prior to the weekend, Sweitzer said he and his team wanted to meet several goals.

“We wanted to repeat in the varsity-four event,” Sweitzer said. The Hornets entered the weekend as the defending WIRA champions in the varsity-four.

“We wanted our lightweight-four and our pair teams to medal, which they did,” Sweitzer said. “We wanted our second varsity-eight team to move up a little more and we wanted our novice-four team to have their best race of the year. Other than that, we just wanted to race some different boats.

“Overall, we just didn?t respond well to the challenge.”

On May 18, the team participates in the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships and on May 19, the season ends with the Pacific-10 Conference Championships. Both events take place at Lake Natoma.

Sweitzer?s goal for those events is a simple one.

“We still have two weeks left in the season. We need to improve on (the WIRA) performance.”

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