Sacramento State women’s rowing started its fall rowing season Saturday with a strong showing at the Head of the American at Lake Natoma.

Competing for the first time this season, the Hornets’ “A” boat tied for third in the women’s Open Eight event with Southern California’s “B” boat, finishing the five kilometer race in 17:35, and losing only to the USC “A” and the Cal “A.” Cal “A” won the event with a time of 16:58.

“It felt really good. We really pulled it together,” team captain Laura Harder said. “We wanted to beat Stanford. We beat them last year and we wanted to see how we compared to them this year.”

The Hornets’ top eight consisted of coxswain Cecilia Vina, stroke Harder, seven seat Ashley Roundtree, six seat Steffanie Jakovac, five seat Brittney Claycamp, four seat Courtney Buehler, three seat Sara Crain, two seat Teresa Bitcon and bowman Janine LaCrosse.

Stanford “A” finished sixth, with a time of 17:44.

“We were very confident this morning. We came in knowing exactly what we wanted to do,” Harder said. “Before races, a lot of teams are very serious and we really like to laugh and joke around. It’s who we are.”

The women’s novice eight placed third in the women’s Collegiate Novice Eight, with a time of 19:10, again being beaten by only USC and event winner Cal, who finished in 17:56.

“Our girls really stepped up today,” women’s assistant coach and novice coach Carrie Hagen said.

The women’s lightweight four also did well, winning the Lightweight Four event in a time of 21:41. That boat’s lineup was coxswain Megan Williams, stroke Coralie Wilhite, three seat Tamara Srzentic, two seat Becca Hanson and bowman Susan Williams.

According to Wilhite, the race was a good one for the crew.

“We were really together. The boat was set the whole way through and our stroke rating was nice and relaxed,” Wilhite said. “We wanted to win coming into today. Our set was good. We had a couple of times when we felt the boat fall to port or starboard, but otherwise, it was really good.”