At 6 a.m. the Sacramento State women’s rowing team has already started practicing, trying to improve upon last season, one of the best that the Hornets’ rowers have ever had.

After a successful season in which the Hornets took second in the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association varsity eight and won the Dad Vail Regatta, a major national rowing race in Philadelphia, the Hornets are looking to build on last year’s success with a strong young squad.

“Our group is very young still. We have a lot of power and a lot of depth,” said captain Laura Harder, a senior majoring in accounting and finance.

The crew has few seniors and mostly consists of juniors and sophomores. Depth is a word that the Hornets will be using quite a bit this year. The squad has returned five rowers from each of its top boats and the entire top novice boat returned, giving the Hornets 20 returning rowers from last season.

“We get more (returning rowers) each year,” head coach Mike Connors said. “That gives us a little more depth and makes us stronger and deeper.”

This Saturday, the Hornets will start the fall racing season with the annual Head of the American race at the CSUS Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma. Rowers from all over the region, including traditional college powerhouses California and Washington and rowing clubs such as the Lake Natoma Rowing Club, will flock to the lake to compete in the 5,000 meter race.

“It’s very tiring, but also very intense at the same time because you can see all the boats around you, but you don’t know who is in what place,” Harder said. “A (head) race is a lot longer, it’s not fast so you can take your time and get into a rhythm and not have to go all out.

The Hornets varsity squad will enter three boats in two events, two eights, containing eight rowers and a coxswain, or navigator, and a four, containing four rowers and a coxswain, Connors said. The eights will compete in the women’s open eight event and the four will compete in the women’s open four event.

The Hornets will not only be competing against schools like Cal and Washington, but also against approximately 10 other schools including collegiate crews from all over California and Oregon. The crew is working hard to prepare for such stiff competition, practicing five times a week, including weightlifting, cardiovascular work and rowing on the water.

This past weekend, the Hornets began the fall semester with the annual alumnae race, pitting this year’s varsity rowers against rowers from previous years. Despite the rain, the alumnae were able to field a full eight of rowers.”I think the weather kept some people home,” Connors said.

However, the race went on. Connors said, despite the best efforts of the alumnae to win, the current varsity won.

“It was fun,” Harder said. “(The alumnae) get the best boat because they are the alumni, but they also tried to start early.”

Despite the crafty nature of the former rowers, this current crop of Hornets shouldn’t need to cheat to be successful this year.