The weather was calm Sunday at Lake Natoma, but on the water, Sacramento State’s women’s rowing team was a tempest of activity at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.

The team won four medals, including a bronze in the varsity eight event, a silver in the second varsity eight, and a first-ever gold in the novice eight.

“Overall, it was good day for us. We entered six events, made five finals and won four medals. We’re there, but we still need to win the big one, the varsity eight,” coach Mike Connors said.

The varsity eight boat finished the 2000-meter racecourse in a time of 6:49.5, third behind Gonzaga, which finished in first with a time of 6:45.7, and Loyola Marymount, which finished with a time of 6:48.1 and won the event last year. Sac State has not won the event since 2001.

The bronze was bittersweet for the team, stroke Laura Harder said afterwards.”It’s nice,” said Harder, who was named to the All-WIRA first team. “But it’s also hard because we have beaten all the boats out here already, except for one. So we knew where we stood against everyone else, and that’s not the way the final results worked out.”

“I’m glad that we medalled, because there were some good crews that didn’t even make the final,” Connors said. “But I am disappointed because I expected more.”

After winning the event last year, the second varsity eight turned in a thrilling race, taking second from UC Davis with a last second charge to win by only one tenth of a second, about the length of the bow ball of the boat. Gonzaga won the race in a time of 6:57.8 with the Hornets finishing in a time of 6:59.6.

“It wasn’t our fastest time, but it was very solid and it felt really good,” stroke Ashley Borelli said. “There were no lows. It was very powerful.”

“In our second eight, our times were very similar to our time last year, when we won events by open water, but this year it just wasn’t quite good enough,” Connors said.

The big winner for the day, however, was the novice eight, a category restricted to first year collegiate rowers. They won the event for the first time in school history.

“We were so excited, especially for our coxswain, who has rowed for four years and never won a medal,” freshman stroke Ashley Loucks said. “We were pretty much neck and neck with (San Diego State) the whole way and then at about 250 meters they started to move into us until we sprinted and were able to put them away.”

Sac State finished in a time of 7:06.5, beating San Diego State by more than two seats. The Aztecs finished in a time of 7:07.8 and Davis rounded out the top three with a time of 7:11.9.

“I think that we have come really far from where we were at the beginning of the year,” freshman coxswain Ashley Platner said, “We don’t have a lot of girls on the squad, but the nine of us in this boat have learned so much.

“We’re one boat together.”

“I’m really excited for this eight. They continue to put together good races,” novice coach Carrie Hagen said. “They have been really working hard on so many aspects of racing and it’s really exciting.”